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Kennedy, Craig, UFW, growers all say bipartisan AgJobs bill is immigration plan with the best chance this year & Arturo S. Rodriguez statement

11 a.m Wednesday in Washington D.C.
Kennedy, Craig, UFW, growers all say bipartisan AgJobs bill is immigration plan with the best chance this year
 

With 54 coauthors in the Senate—roughly evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats—the AgJobs bill is the immigration reform plan with the best, and perhaps the only, chance of passage this year.
 
Making that case at a Wednesday news conference will be the authors of the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act (AgJobs, S. 1645 and H.R. 3142), U.S. Sens. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), and U.S. Reps. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.). Joining them will be United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez, leaders of the nation’s agricultural industry and representatives from Latino civil rights and religious groups.
 
In addition to broad bipartisan support, AgJobs is the only immigration legislation with strong backing from employer, labor, civil rights and clergy organizations.
 
AgJobs would allow undocumented farm workers to earn the permanent legal right to stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture. It would also revise the current agricultural guest worker program, making it easier for growers to use while preserving important labor protections for workers.
 
Who: U.S. Sens. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), and U.S. Reps. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez, leaders of the nation’s agricultural industry.
 
What: Urging Congress to pass the AgJobs bill, the only immigration reform measure with broad bipartisan support and a chance of passage this year.
 
When: 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 24, 2004.
 
Where: Room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
 


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UFW President Arturo Rodriguez:

‘Can we say to the world this is the land of freedom except for undocumented immigrants?’
 
 
United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez made the following remarks today (March 24, 2004) at the news conference in Washington, D.C. on the AgJobs bill (S. 1645 and H.R. 3142) letting undocumented farm workers earn the permanent legal right to stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture:
 

We want to thank Senators Craig and Kennedy, Representatives Cannon and Berman and all the lawmakers supporting this proposal.


Conventional wisdom says it is hard to enact major legislation in an election year. That would be the tragic waste of a great opportunity in the case of the AgJobs bill.
 
It is earned legalization. It is fair and sensible reform.
 
Leaders of the nation’s agricultural industry and the United Farm Workers painstakingly negotiated it with help from key lawmakers.
 
It is the only measure strongly supported by employer, labor, civil rights and religious organizations.
 
It is the only bill enjoying broad bipartisan support—with 54 co-authors in the Senate, roughly half Republicans.
 
But AgJobs also fulfills the promise this nation holds out to those who perform America’s labor. Nowhere is that more true than in agriculture.
 
To those who say we shouldn’t consider or cooperate with hard-working, tax-paying undocumented immigrants, that they are criminals and trespassers, I say to you: Why do you continue to buy most fresh fruits and vegetables? They come to your tables through the skill and toil of undocumented farm workers.
 
 
 
American consumers are accustomed to the greatest abundance of the best quality fruits and vegetables in the world at relatively cheap prices. Such plenty comes from the hands of undocumented immigrants.
 
The question is not whether they will remain in the country. America’s economy—and American agriculture—cannot survive without them.
 
The question is whether these workers will continue living in fear and be denied a voice in the country that relies so heavily on their contributions and sacrifice.
 
We see their faces and suffering every day. They are our co-workers and neighbors. They are our friends and family. They are us.
 
One of them is Severo Aucensio. He is 71. For 30 years he has helped build Oregon agriculture. A nursery worker, Severo has raised six children and has 20 grandchildren. He is active in his church and community, including PCUN, our sister union in Oregon. Yet Severo still earns the minimum wage, has no benefits, no retirement—nothing to show for 30 years of dedicated labor.
 
Armando Urbiata is 32, a tomato picker in Ohio. Six years ago the coyote guiding Armando into the country left him, his pregnant wife and three small children in the middle of the Arizona desert. His feet were bleeding. He wrapped his smallest child to keep her warm at night.
 
For five years Armando has been an asset to his employer. His kids are learning English. He is active in his church and union, FLOC. His ambition is to provide for the family he loves.
 
In his 1963 speech proposing the historic Civil Rights Act banning segregation, President Kennedy said:
 
“We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it. And we cherish our freedom here at home. But are we to say to the world—and much more importantly to each other—that this is the land of the free, except for the [African Americans]; that we have no second-class citizens, except [African Americans]; that we have no class or caste system…except with respect to [African Americans].”
 
The same questions can be posed today about people who still endure abuse and discrimination:
 
As we hold out America as the bulwark against terrorism and intolerance, can we say to the world—and to ourselves—that this is the land of freedom, except for undocumented immigrants?
 
Do we have no second-class citizens, except for the immigrants?
 
Do we have no class or caste system, except when it comes to immigrants?
 
The answers to those questions will truly define whether this nation remains faithful to its heritage of democracy and equality.
 
We should pass the AgJobs bill now.
 

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