Adan Ramirez joins unionized agricultural workers who put on a thanksgiving feast to urge President Obama to take executive action to legalize undocumented immigrants at the UFW office in Salinas on Wednesday. (Vern Fisher – Monterey Herald) 

SALINAS >> Ahead of an announcement expected to bring relief to millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, Monterey County farmworkers urged President Obama to take the “broadest possible action” on immigration reform.

Standing behind a table showcasing the bounty produced in local fields, activists with the United Farm Workers asked the president to deliver on a promise he made earlier this year to use executive power to legalize the immigration status of undocumented immigrants.

“We’re asking him to be the leader farmworkers desperately need,” said Armando Elenes, national vice-president with the UFW. “Every day, farmworkers across the country put their blood, their sweat and tears into picking and harvesting America’s food.

“But instead of welcoming these workers and fostering their hopes of one day achieving the American dream, they’re forced to live in the shadows, subjected to inhumane working conditions, undercutting their wages, and under constant threat of getting deported and getting separated from the country and the family they have,” Elenes said.

Fueled by the labor of thousands of undocumented workers, agriculture is the largest source of income in Monterey County. An estimated 11 million people live illegally in the United States, and some experts believe up to 80 percent of workers who toil in the fields are undocumented.

Now in the process of fixing his immigration status, Octavio Zepeda knows what it’s like to live illegally in the United States. He said workers cannot travel to Yuma to work in the winter for fear of being caught by immigration authorities as they head back to Salinas. That limits their income and makes life more difficult for their entire family.

“This is the importance of the announcement we’re expecting from Obama,” Zepeda said in Spanish. “We’ve been waiting for reform for three years.”

Obama laid out a plan for comprehensive immigration reform two years ago, which included a special path for field workers to fix their immigration status. But his efforts did not get far in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, even though some members originally had said they were willing to work on a bipartisan agreement.

Immigration is a toxic subject. Law-and-order Republicans use the topic to bolster support among their base, and many refuse to even consider granting legal status to immigrants who were brought to this country as children.

Obama has been promising to take action, but he delayed the announcement until after the November election. Republicans in Congress have been urging him not to take “unilateral action” in immigration, warning that doing so would amount to “lawlessness.”

Obama announced on Wednesday he would deliver a message on immigration on Thursday.

“I’m going to be announcing the steps I can take to start fixing our broken immigration system,” he said in an Internet message. “Everybody agrees our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, Congress has allowed the problem to fester for too long.”

Experts speculate Obama’s action will be similar to earlier steps halting the deportation of immigrants who arrived illegally in the United States when they were minors.

“He will likely create a deferred-action program for undocumented parents,” said Kevin Johnson, dean of the University of Califorina-Davis School of Law. “It will require an individual application, grant a work authorization, and will require a fee to be paid. Nobody with a serious crime would be eligible for the relief. It’s not amnesty or path to legalization. It’s likely to be a temporary action.”

Ahead of the announcement, supporters and opponents of the president’s plans are organizing to either defend the plan or denounce it. Supporters are organizing viewing parties, opponents are getting their talking points ready.

“Based on published reports it appears likely that under the guise of a benign-sounding name — ‘deferred action’ — President Obama will, once more, effectively grant amnesty to many people who are in this country illegally, ignore valid immigration laws that have been passed by Congress and signed by his predecessors, and fail to fulfill his constitutional duty,” said John Malcolm, director of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Meese Legal Center, in a statement.

Johnson said most legal scholars agree the president has some power to exercise discretion when it comes to immigration.

“The president, throughout history, has exercised some discretion about who to remove from the country,” Johnson said. “In my mind, this falls squarely in the realm of legality.”

Obama’s prior action, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, has not been overturned in court despite legal challenges.

Observers believe the president’s action could grant relief from deportation to about five million immigrants, but Johnson is more conservative.

“It’s hard to tell how many people would be affected and how many would apply,” he said. “For DACA, it was estimated two million were eligible, but only 500,000 applications were granted. A lot of people may not want to apply because the fee is too high, some may be worried it’s only temporary relief, why risk getting deported? That happened with DACA.”

Eulogio Solano has worked in Monterey County agriculture for years, and has lobbied for immigration reform for almost as long. He’s anxious, he says, hoping Thursday’s news is good.

“I have hopes on the president, but not in the Republicans,” Solano said in Spanish. “It’s getting close to the end of the year, and (Obama) promised he would do something before the end of the year. There’s a lot of people who are suffering, who are afraid. They can’t go work in El Centro, in Yuma, because they’re afraid to get caught. They’re without jobs, and the farms are without workers.”

Claudia Meléndez Salinas can be reached at 726-4370.