Coincidentally, the Washington Post and Washington Times both have editorials about the Herndon day-laborer controversy today. Reading them side by side is, to say the least, very entertaining.
First from The Washington Post:
We applaud the five members of Herndon’s seven-member town council who resisted the onslaught and wisely voted in favor of the formal day-laborer site. This was no small feat; some said it was the hardest vote of their political careers. All this, and the town of Herndon isn’t even footing the bill — the coalition that will run the center hopes to supplement existing private funds with $175,000 from Fairfax County’s small pool of money already earmarked for day-laborer-related projects. The amount is negligible in the county’s $3 billion annual budget, yet people rushed to spread the word that taxpayer money might indirectly benefit illegal immigrants.
Ummm, well, first of all Herndon is part of Fairfax County and the residents of Herndon pay taxes to Fairfax County. Therefore, Herndon residents are paying for the center after all.
Second, notice how the Post completely ignores the fact that the money is being used to fund illegal activity ?
This is where the Washington Times chimes in:
Tax dollars to help illegal aliens find jobs: That’s what Herndon’s “day-laborer” center amounts to. The center could be open as early as mid-September after Wednesday’s 5-2 yes vote by Herndon’s town council. Government money is already implicated: The center will be housed on town property and Fairfax County is considering spending $175,000 on it. So, county taxpayers’ dollars may soon be used to help scofflaws hire illegals who flout immigration law. Clearly, the Washington lawmakers who warned Herndon last month not to do this will need to intervene. The last thing the United States’ broken immigration system needs are towns and communities offering additional incentives to illegals.
Well said, in some respects.
As I’ve said in posts earlier this week, I am not generally opposed to allowing people to come here to work. There is obviously a demand for cheap foreign labor and the immigrants are doing the same thing that immigrants who came here 100 years ago were doing —- trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. In some respects, I think that the reaction against these immigrants today is just another variation of the same nativist anti-immigrant bigotry that was once focused on the Irish, Italians, and Eastern Europeans that came here in the late 19th and early 20th Century.
At the same time, though, I have a significant problem with public officials like the Town Counsel of Herndon and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors ignoring the laws that are on the books today. The immigration laws in this country need to be changed, and the borders need to be secured, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore the law because we don’t like it.
