Mayor Bill White will help find $100,000 to keep a day labor center open in response to a decision by officials to cancel the center’s city funding, a spokesman said.

Critics say the East End Worker Development Center encourages illegal immigration because it’s a popular site with illegal workers who gather there to seek employment.

City officials decided recently not to renew a $100,000-a-year contract with Neighborhood Centers Inc. to operate the center. The center, which has been funded through the federal Community Development Block Grant program, faces closure at the end of the month.

Frank Michel, a spokesman for White who is on business in Washington, D.C, said the mayor has agreed to work with the nonprofit’s operators to find other sources of funding.

“What that is, I can’t say at this point because it hasn’t yet been identified,” Michel said.

Neighborhood Centers has operated the hiring hall since 2005.

“The mayor has committed to finding the private funding

necessary to keep the center open for another year,” agency director Marc Levinson said.

Supporters say the center also serves legal workers, and it eliminates the safety hazards of workers who solicit jobs on city streets.

Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, whose district includes the center, welcomed the mayor’s support.

“It’s safe, it’s secure, it’s a controlled environment, as opposed to street corners and retail parking lots,” she said.

But opponents said funding the center runs counter to U.S.  immigration laws because it fosters illegal immigration.

“We’re just going to develop an underclass of workers that will be cheaper and cheaper, and that’s what the corporations want,” said Louise Whiteford, president of Texans for Immigration Reform, based in Houston.