U.S. immigrant worker debate taken up by Virginia township

Tuesday, August 2, 2005 File:Bill Threlked.jpg

Bill Threlked said, "What we want to try to do here is build activities where people can begin to understand each other and feel like everybody here is a neighbor one with another."
*(Image missing from Commons: image; log)*

In a scene repeated across much of America, each morning a group of day laborers, mostly immigrants, assemble by a 7-Eleven convenience store in the hopes of getting work.

Each day, nearly 200 people gather near the nation's capital in Herndon, Virginia; these laborers do much of the hard and dangerous work not wanted by most U.S. citizens. This daily gathering has drawn both the ire and compassion of the Herndon community. A public hearing Monday night to discuss a new plan drew an overflowing crowd to the Town Council chambers. The Commission said so many people signed up to speak at the hearing that the panel will need to convene again Tuesday night.

For years groups and businesses among the community who want to help the day laborers have been working on the issue. In a plan spearheaded by Bill Threlkeld, of the group Project Hope and Harmony, they lobbied Herndon officials to use taxpayer money to build a regulated day laborer center in an old police station at the edge of town. This they say would get the day-laborer group(s) off the street. The plan has the backing of Herndon mayor, Michael L. O'Reilly.

The plan would also combine the opening of the center with a new local ordinance that would make it a misdemeanor crime for a laborer to seek work at any location other than the official one. Opponents of the plan say the town would be aiding illegal immigrants if it established the center.

A Pew Hispanic Center survey found a 25% increase over four years in the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. The number now is estimated to have reached about 10.3 million. Local governments do not have the authority to enforce national immigration laws, so the town of Herndon must rely on federal officials, who show little interest in getting involved.

Sources

Paul Bradley. "Crowd overflows Herndon meeting" — Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 2, 2005
Brian Paddon. "Communities Struggle with Realities of Illegal Immigrants and Day Laborers" — Voice of America, August 1, 2005

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
Please note that this only applies to Wikinews content created prior to September 25, 2005. All content created after that date is released under a Creative Commons license which is mentioned at the bottom of each article. This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.