I found an excellent article on the subject of day labor centers and illegal immigration at azcentral.com. The subtitle of the article, "Rhetoric of fear does nothing to separate issues, solve either problem," pretty much sums up Jerry Kilgore's unwarranted attack on Herndon's well-thought-out and well-debated plan for creating a shelter for day laborers. The deal is, this is an issue all across our country, and dozens of communities have responded by setting up such day labor centers. It's nothing new, in fact it's a rapidly growing trend. So why is the Kilgore campaign ratcheting up the volume in the middle of a hotly contested gubernatorial campaign? And why are they doing so in a way that is not in the least bit helpful to actually resolving the issue, only inflaming passions?Anyway, this article is very much on-point for the current debate here in Virginia, even though they're referring to the situation in Phoenix, Arizona (which has a lot more immigrants than we have here, I'd point out). Here are some quotes:
*"We need to separate anti-immigration fervor from the real issues surrounding the gathering of men on street corners seeking work."
*"If we cannot weed out the emotional reactions of people who believe that all of those laborers are in this country illegally and must be deported, we cannot deal with the nuts and bolts of how to match the workers with jobs and keep them from hanging out in parking lots."
*"Trying to get rid of laborers by passing laws against the practice simply is not effective."
*"The men who wait for work at the day labor center in north Phoenix pose little criminal threat. They offer us no probable cause to question their legality."
*"The tremendous irony is that day laborers in many ways embody the American dream. Yet they're often despised by the people they serve and the communities they serve."
*"...all the experts explained why the best solution is to set up day labor centers, get the men off the streets and parking lots and provide jobs."
*"The whole community wins with a day labor center. It's progress. See it that way."