HoodaThunk?

Not long after the citizens of Herndon, VA loudly made their feelings known as regards the future town support of a day laborer site in their town, the Washington Post has attempted to ride to the rescue by presenting a puff piece on the whole issue of demand for day laborers. “Day Laborer Demand Rises in Herndon” is little more than a common-sense observation bent into the service of promoting the Post’s political viewpoint.

The demand for day laborers at the Herndon Official Workers Center increased by about 15 percent from March to April, mostly because of seasonal factors, according to Bill Threlkeld, director of Project Hope and Harmony, which operates the center.

In March and April, about 115 day laborers gathered at the center each day to find work. On an average day in March, about 31 were hired. That number increased to about 48 last month, Threlkeld said. Each day the laborers’ names are entered into a lottery used to select the workers sent on a job when an employer comes to the site.

And just like that, a straightforward reporting of a fact – that day laborer demand rises when the season turns from winter to spring – turns into a glowing guiding tour of how this particular day laborer center operates, complete with quotes from their director regarding their function and hopes for the future. Slipped in alongside that is a reference to that Darth Vader brigade known as “the immigration service.”

Last week the center set a new high for hiring percentage when 75 day laborers signed up for work — lower than normal — and 54 were hired. There was a reason for the low turnout, Threlkeld said. “There were all kinds of rumors about raids that day by the immigration service, and that always gives the [worker] population the jitters.”

Gee, now why would rumors of the Immigration and Customer Enforcement (ICE) agency performing raids curtail the number of people using the center? Perhaps because the guys who elected to stay home that day have reason to have the “jitters”? This was the whole crux of the opposition to the day laborer center to begin with; that the primary reason for its existence was to facilitate illegal aliens’ attempts to find work to allow them to continue operating in the US in violation of our immigrations laws and to allow local employers to skirt those laws as well. The only thing Herndon citizens were asking was that the center be required to validate that those people making use of its services were legally allowed to be here. The operators of the center fought that requirement tooth and nail and they found allies in the previous town council.

Ah, yes – I said previous town council. As I mentioned before, there was a massive bit of political bloodletting that went on this week with the mix of Council members in favor of the center versus those opposed going from 5-to-2 to a ratio of 1-to-6. So long as we’re talking about the center to begin with, that’s a pretty important fact to consider. So where does that little tidbit appear in this story?

Nowhere. Not a mention of it. At. All. Now, you’d think that the obvious message sent by the citizens of Herndon as regards the center would be a pertinent fact. Not if you’re a WaPo reporter with an agenda to advance.