Herndon seeks leadership change at day-labor center

Just when I thought the immigration news was getting boring...

This morning's Washington Post reports that Herndon's Town Council is looking to change the management of the town's controversial day-labor center. This is, of course, a thinly veiled attempt to move the center out of town, one step at a time. The plan is to find a management company to run center like an employment agency, which will check each day-laborer's documents to ensure they are legally eligible to work in the U.S. At the same time, Herndon's leaders are looking for a new site for the center.

Here's the problem: 70-80% of those who hire the day-laborers are local residents looking for a handyman, according to the center's statistics. That means that even if Herndon's esteemed mayor, Stephen J. DeBenedittis, is successful at moving the center or effectively shutting is down, the local residents are going to continue to look for day-laborers, and the problem will most likely move to another ad hoc site, like the 7-Eleven.

Rather than harassing day-laborers, everyone Herndon's leadership could use their time more productively by focusing their efforts toward congress and pressing their representatives to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill.