Arturo S. Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, issued the following statement after President Obama’s fifth State of the Union address.
The United Farm Workers was pleased to hear President Obama reiterate his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform during his State of the Union address tonight. Since winning re-election, the president has expressed in several, public and private, occasions the need for a new immigration process for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants who are living in the shadows. From the President’s visit with farm workers at the UFW headquarters in Keene, California last October, to his speech in Las Vegas two weeks ago and his meeting with key immigration advocates at the White House last week, it is evident the President is serious about fixing our broken immigration system this year.
The fact that President Obama deemed important to include immigration reform policy as one of the top priorities for his administration during his first address to the nation in his second term, sends an encouraging message to many of us, who like the UFW have been fighting for more than a decade to find a solution that works for America.
We were also thrilled to learn that First Lady Michelle Obama invited former farm worker Ms. Desiline Victor to be her guest at tonight’s State of the Union address. Ms. Victor, who is 102 years old and waited more than three hours in line to vote on Election Day, is also a plaintiff in the precedent-setting case of Antenor v D & S Farms, 88 F.3d 925 (11th Cir. 1996), which is one of the leading joint employment cases in the United States that protects farm workers.
The UFW was glad to see Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who delivered a response to the President’s State of the Union address on behalf of the Republican Party, share his commitment to work on an immigration reform plan that address the needs of America’s new immigrants.