Illegal Immigration comes to a head in my state

Hi. Here in Northern Virginia we have a slight problem. At almost every 7-11 store from Manassas to Hyattsville, Maryland, you have to push through a swarm of illegal immigrants who want you to hire them for gutter cleaning, leaf cleaning, drywall work, plumbing, or whatever.

In Herndon there are about 100 - 200 people at the 7-11 store each day hanging out bugging people. Now the town wants to build a day laborer hiring center with taxpayer money to clean up the crowds. As you can expect, people are upset. (At least, the legal, tax paying ones are.)

"Herndon hearing on Day Laborer housing"

washingtonpost.com...

Several people marched outside, waving placards that read, "No Day Laborer Site" and "No $$ for Hiring Hall." Others spoke heatedly against establishing an official day laborer site, saying it would draw more illegal immigrants to the area.

But proponents of the plan accused the protesters of racism and contended that the town needs to reach out to and work with the more than 100 immigrants who gather informally outside a 7-Eleven in downtown Herndon every day.

Personally, I think it'd be best if the cops dispersed this crowd every day. People I talk to agree. But there are these protesters who say people who don't want street corners clogged with illegals (hundreds at a time!) are being racist.

Basically, the problem starts with federal government. These guys didn't swim up the Atlantic and land in Virginia. They didn't jump from Honduras to here in one shot. They crossed the border and came across many states. Now we have to deal with the mess.

Sounds bad, but I have a question.

If these people are illegal immigrants why are they not being arrested?

Could they not be legal immigrants looking for work? Could this be why people are making claims of racism? I just dont get why they are not arrested.

hey, we are thinking of moving down into that area.....

was just wondering, since money will be tight and we'll need to get jobs real fast if we want to keep a roof over our heads, will this center cater to us also, we aren't illegals...

Originally posted by Jeremiah_John
Hi. Here in Northern Virginia we have a slight problem. At almost every 7-11 store from Manassas to Hyattsville, Maryland, you have to push through a swarm of illegal immigrants who want you to hire them for gutter cleaning, leaf cleaning, drywall work, plumbing, or whatever.

And they're there because people in your area are hiring them for this. Because there's contractors up there who use their labor.

If there weren't jobs, they wouldn't be there.

In Herndon there are about 100 - 200 people at the 7-11 store each day hanging out bugging people. Now the town wants to build a day laborer hiring center with taxpayer money to clean up the crowds. As you can expect, people are upset.

Because this approach works in other cities. My brother in Garland, Texas says this was a nuiscance in certain areas till they built a day labor hiring center. Not just 'anybody' can get a job through that place (and it's used by more than the hispanic population) and this way the cops can legally arrest and get rid of anyone who is solicting jobs and is NOT at the center.

Plus there's more control over these desired-and-undesirable workers.

The other way to get rid of them is to start taking these jobs (gutter cleaning, etc) yourself and encouraging your kids and your friends to take these $5/hour jobs so that there's no need for illegal labor.

Originally posted by Indellkoffer

Originally posted by Jeremiah_John
Hi. Here in Northern Virginia we have a slight problem. At almost every 7-11 store from Manassas to Hyattsville, Maryland, you have to push through a swarm of illegal immigrants who want you to hire them for gutter cleaning, leaf cleaning, drywall work, plumbing, or whatever.

And they're there because people in your area are hiring them for this. Because there's contractors up there who use their labor.

If there weren't jobs, they wouldn't be there.

Amazing observation.

In Herndon there are about 100 - 200 people at the 7-11 store each day hanging out bugging people. Now the town wants to build a day laborer hiring center with taxpayer money to clean up the crowds. As you can expect, people are upset.

Because this approach works in other cities. My brother in Garland, Texas says this was a nuiscance in certain areas till they built a day labor hiring center. Not just 'anybody' can get a job through that place (and it's used by more than the hispanic population) and this way the cops can legally arrest and get rid of anyone who is solicting jobs and is NOT at the center.

Plus there's more control over these desired-and-undesirable workers.


The other way to get rid of them is to start taking these jobs (gutter cleaning, etc) yourself and encouraging your kids and your friends to take these $5/hour jobs so that there's no need for illegal labor.

It's not even legal to pay people that little. It's all under the table labor that is never taxed and is not enough to live decently on. These illegals live 20 people per house and that's not even in the county they work in. They get hurt on the job, no one can help them. They often get screwed out of wages, and have no legal recourse. (This happens a LOT.) The best thing to do would be to round them up and get them back to their country of origin.

So where does it stop? Build a community center, hire advocates for them, then more come, and build more centers, hire more advocates. Hey I have an idea, why not just make them citizens? I'm all for that. But unless they are citizens, I don't think we should be making places for them and spending tax dollars on them. The cops should just show up, fire a few rounds of tear gas and disperse the crowd.

Like I said, the Feds have dumped this problem on us, now we have to deal with it? Don't think so.

Well, they can't become citizens overnight.

That's why community centres and immigrant centres can help (generally more than we realise).

I've been an advocate for alien residents, including some who don't have legal status; believe it or not, most actually do want to find a way to change their status to legal, and most are just trying to keep afloat until that happens. This isn't a quick or easy process though, and whilst I agree that working under the table is illegal and it's not really helping in the long run, it's often their only viable option.

Oddly, here (North Dakota), day labour places aren't allowed to hire illegals and that's strictly policed. They just couldn't do it even if they wanted to do it (there's also a really high number of immigrants here, both legal and otherwise - I'm still not sure why, really...).