Advice to the Herndon Town Council on Monday: rest up, because Tuesday promises to be a long night.
On Tuesday, the seven-member council will consider an amendment to a recent law designed to curb solicitations from day laborers. The amendment would keep solicitors out of the streets as per the law, but would would allow them to sell services from the sidewalks and even the shoulders of the roads.
Prior to voting on the amendment, the council will hear public comment from activists on both sides of the issue. Most of the day laborers in question happen to be Hispanic, which has immigrant-rights groups screaming foul. Chief among those groups is Virginia New Majority, based in Arlington. Arlington is nearly 20 miles from Herndon, which longtime Herndonians might as well call Rockville, meaning the group — according to some — has no legitimate standing to muddle in town affairs.
The self-proclaimed “pro-immigrant” faction will start the evening with a 6:15 rally at Herndon’s St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, 432 Van Buren Street. The council meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m., but will likely go late as there are six public hearings and votes before the street-solicitation headliner.
