Radical, Part 3

Itinerant workers in Herndon VA show their opinion of local voters

It seems that voters in Herndon, VA, are as unhappy about their voices not being heard by the Establishment parties as KANH is. Yesterday, they voted out their mayor and most of their town council for supporting a day-labor center for immigrant workers. Herndon's overwhelmingly liberal town council set up the center last year in a residential neighborhood to help employers find itinerant day laborers for sub-minimum wage work. Many of the laborers the center shelters are illegal aliens. Needless to say, the crime rate in the surrounding neighborhood soared when the laborers began to hang out there, first in a 7-11 parking lot, then in the publicly-subsidized shelter. The WaPo continues the story (by way of Michelle Malkin):

Herndon voters yesterday unseated the mayor and Town Council members who supported a bitterly debated day-labor center for immigrant workers in a contest that emerged as a mini-referendum on the turbulent national issue of illegal immigration.

Residents replaced the incumbents with a group of challengers who immediately called for significant changes at the center. Some want to bar public funds from being spent on the facility or restrict it to workers residing in the country legally. Others want it moved to an industrial site away from the residential neighborhood where it is located.

The day-labor center thrust the western Fairfax County town into the national spotlight as the issue of illegal immigration became emotional. Even though fewer than 3,000 people voted yesterday, advocates on both sides of the issue looked at the election as a test case of public sentiment. Outside groups such as the Minutemen Project, which favors sharp curbs on illegal immigration, intervened in the town debate. Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, is suing the town over establishment of the center.

[New Mayor] DeBenedittis, the son of a popular former high school art teacher in Herndon, said his victory was the product of intense door-to-door campaigning and deep discontent over how the labor center issue was handled by the mayor and council in the town of 23,000 residents.

"They didn't like the way the debate went down, and there was the feeling that they were not heard," he said.

Indeed. There are lots of people in this country who don't like not being heard. Immigration is one issue on which the government is turning a deaf ear. This may be the bellwether for a backlash against illegal immigration in the wake of the socialist- and MeCha-inspired demonstrations in April and on May Day. This issue may become one that a third party could turn to its advantage, by promising to secure the border and only then discuss the status of illegals and citizenship. In the meantime, hooray for the citizens of Herndon!

Monk