April 19, 2005
UFW: ‘solid bipartisan support’ for AgJobs in Senate
United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez issued the following statement from the union’s Keene, Calif. headquarters after the U.S. Senate considered the AgJobs measure:
Even though AgJobs fell short of a "supermajority" of 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, we have shown solid bipartisan support for AgJobs from a majority of senators. Given the crushing defeat of the competing guest worker proposal by Senators Chambliss and Kyl (defeated 77-21), AgJobs is clearly the only viable, bipartisan solution for our nation’s agricultural industry. It places farm workers at the front of the immigration debate. No genuine immigration reform proposal has gotten this far. We will be back again to pass AgJobs.
AgJobs is a milestone for growers seeking a legal and stable work force. It means hope for immigrant farm workers who perform some of the most important labor in our nation but constantly live with danger and fear. No worker should have to sacrifice his or her life to feed, clothe and house a family. Yet that tragedy happens regularly along the U.S.-Mexico border. More people died crossing the border in the last 10 years than perished on Sept. 11, 2001.
We once again call on Congress to quickly place AgJobs on President Bush’s desk and we appeal to the President to sign it into law.
Recently, the President said, ”there is a compassionate, humane way to deal with this issue… family values do not end at the Rio Grande.” AgJobs includes these basic principals. It is hard-earned legalization, a comprehensive bill negotiated by the United Farm Workers and the agricultural industry over a four-year period. It is backed by more than 500 organizations, including business, labor, religious, Latino and immigrant rights groups. AgJobs means:
• Undocumented farm workers earning the right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture: 100 days during the 18 months before enactment to earn temporary legal status plus another 360 days over three to six years after passage to earn permanent legal status.
• Guarantee of workers’ rights, including decent pay, working conditions and protections from abuse.
• Encouraging families to stay together and fully participate in the society they help feed.
If the farm workers and the agricultural industry can put aside decades of often bitter differences to agree on AgJobs, surely Congress and the President can do the same in the interest of the nation as well as the growers and farm workers who help feed it.
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