The city of Houston has decided to quit funding (with taxpayers’ money) a Day Labor Center that is a hub for hiring mostly-illegal immigrants:

Mark Zwick, left, co-founder of the Casa Juan Diego shelter, talks with John Leo, an undocumented worker. Zwick fears the closure of the East End center will exacerbate problems for workers.

Houston’s only city-funded day labor center is set to close at the end of the month after city officials decided not to renew a $100,000 contract to run the hiring hall popular with illegal workers.

The East End Worker Development Center, at 2 N. Sampson, stirred a storm of controversy in spring 2006 after it became embroiled in a City Hall debate about whether it encouraged illegal immigration.

[Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White] said the city’s funding of the facility became an issue last spring after then-Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs — who was seeking the Republican nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Tom Delay — and others said the center promoted illegal immigration.

“There are many in the community who say we shouldn’t be spending taxpayer money on it, because it encourages illegal immigration,” Michel said.

Count me as one of those who say we shouldn’t be spending taxpayer money on it because — not only because it does encourage illegal immigration — it also makes it easier for them once they are here.

One way to discourage people from pouring through our porous border is to eliminate the reasons they come here in the first place.

And one of the biggest reasons they come here is the lure of better paying jobs than they could ever dream of back home in Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

But there are encouraging signs (at least in Houston):

The number of employers looking for workers seems to have dropped sharply, he said, in part because of the softening of the economy but also because of fear of prosecution for hiring undocumented immigrants.

Good. They should be fearful of breaking the law, and they should be punished severely when they break it.

With a large supply of workers but few jobs, some recently arrived [illegal] immigrants were talking about moving on, asking Mark Zwick for help to buy a bus ticket to Dallas and Virginia.

Alejandro Avilaz, 26, of Michoacan, Mexico, arrived at the shelter Sunday with no legal papers and no job.

“I don’t know anyone here,” he said, “no family, nobody. If I can find work, I’ll stay.“

The inverse of that is “If I can’t find work, I’ll go.” Which is precisely why we need to go after those who hire and abet illegal aliens in this country. Closing day labor centers that are funded by taxpayer dollars is a start (though not nearly enough).

Here’s a suggestion, Alejandro — go back to where you do know people; where you do have family: Mexico.

Or you could always try to enter our country legally. In which case, I’ll be the first to welcome you.