UFW members and farm workers from all over the country join march
Washington, D.C. – Some 300 farm workers from across the U.S. join UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez and tens of thousands of people expected to gather Sunday, March 21st, at the National Mall in Washington D.C. to demand Congress and President Obama enact a comprehensive immigration reform.
The march, organized by the Reform Immigration FOR America national campaign, which includes the United Farm Workers, is pushing for comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would allow approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants to legalize their residency status in this country.
“I’m going to Washington D.C. to represent all farm workers,” said Teresa Serrano, a UFW member from California. “I have been a farm worker for 40 years and even though I’m a U.S. citizen, I know how hard it is to work in the fields and even more so if you don’t have your papers.”
Rodriguez, who will be representing farm worker union members and will be a speaker at the Washington D.C. rally, said now more than ever a comprehensive U.S. immigration reform is key in helping rebuild our country and giving back American working families the prosperity and equality they deserve. Every comprehensive immigration reform bill considered by the U.S. Senate has included AgJOBS.
“Americans depend for their food on the labor and skill of undocumented farm workers. We need professional farm workers with the experience and skills to produce the fresh fruit and vegetables that feed Americans. Growing food in our own country allows us to control pesticide use and food safety, and ensure farm workers are treated with respect and dignity,” he said.
Last year, the UFW’s nationwide campaign “Con La Union de Campesinos Tendremos Papeles” (With the United Farm Workers We’ll Get Our Papers) attracted more than 20,000 people to the different events that took place in California. The current comprehensive immigration bill includes AgJOBS legislation, which would allow farm workers to earn the legal right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture. That is the aim of the UFW’s landmark, broadly-backed AgJOBS bill negotiated by the union and the nation’s agricultural industry.
"The farm worker movement Cesar began is the root of the Latino political movement,” he continued. “Now we have a president, Barack Obama, whose own roots are like ours and whose presidential campaign was rooted in Cesar’s grito, ‘Si se puede!’ or ‘Yes we can!’”