What better way for farm workers to mark Cesar Chavez’s March 31 birthday than by marching in their communities and lobbying in Washington, D.C. for immigration reform? On the weekend before Cesar’s birthday thousands of farm workers—most of them undocumented—marched in Fresno, Salinas, Bakersfield, Oxnard, Santa Rosa and Coachella, and in Yakima, Washington. Many were in the congressional districts of key House Republicans.
During April more than 150 farm workers and their families are lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C. for immigration reform with a path to citizenship, the largest contingent of field laborers ever to travel to their nation’s capital. Their lobbying on Capitol Hill is complimented by intense efforts in the home districts of congressional members, all organized by the United Farm Workers, UFW Foundation, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, sister farm worker unions in the Pacific Northwest, Florida and the East Coast, Farmworker Justice and the National Farm Worker Ministry.
This is a critical juncture. Our elected officials must move swiftly forward by creating a new immigration process that brings long-overdue recognition to these hard-working, tax-paying immigrants whose hard labor and sacrifice feed the people of our country and enable the survival of other important sectors of the U.S. economy.
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America