The illegal immigration issue is now across the country. I live in one of the most diverse areas in the country outside DC in Virginia. We have all sorts fo immigrants and visitors from around the world. We are hardly intolerable to immigrants and foreign visitors. But illegal immigrants are a different matter. Here is a case in point in our area that is being spun a bit by the Washington Post (whodathunkit) [hat tip LJStrata for the link]

The throng of Latino immigrants gathering outside the 7-Eleven in downtown Herndon looking for a day’s work has been the most noticeable part of this commercial district of shopping plazas and fast-food restaurants for almost a decade.

For as long as they’ve been there, the newcomers, many of them in the country illegally, have been at the center of ethnic and racial tensions simmering among Herndon’s rapidly dwindling white majority and even among legal immigrants living in town.

This is so much hype it is ridiculous. Yes, the day laborers have congregated here from the last 7 years or so, but there is also a latino market around the corner where they can cash their checks. And the white majority is not dwindling and their are very few racial tensions. What is happening is the number of men just sitting around the area has risen to number many tens a day where it was only 10-12 for a short time. So something had to be done when half a block of business and residential street is just filled with drifters all day long. No big deal.

But now, as town officials consider a plan to spend about $170,000 in taxpayer money to move the workers to a designated site in a residential neighborhood and staff it with social workers and English tutors, those emotions are exploding into the open.

And this is what has people upset. Using tax dollars to fund support for people who are here illegally. Makes no sense to, in essence, financially punish the people of the area when they did not do anything wrong. I take a bit of a middle road – because crime is the one thing that will create a backlash, and there has been crime. In our neighborhood nearby there was a stabbing in a house that had been turned into a multi-family shelter of immigrants. There were some even sleeping in the shed out back!

This is where I draw the line. In a previous post I suggested anytime an illegal immigrant breaks the law, show them the border. No exceptions. We are a very tolerant and diverse community, but we do not have blind, endless tolerance. Here is a quote to illustrate what I mean.

“We are being really crushed by these Central American people,” said Ruth Tatlock, 77, who has lived in Herndon for 31 years and supports the project. “It’s a big influx in a small town. . . . But we have to be able to coexist somehow and do it on a decent level.”

Word of wisdom.