Florida’s new law targeting undocumented immigrants has raised concerns in sectors of the local economy, with Arizona’s past experience serving as a possible precursor of both economic repercussions and unforeseen political consequences.
A look at hard news coverage and in-depth features.
In New York State, many labor laws don’t apply to farmworkers who often work 60 to 80 hours a week. FI2W contributor Aurora Almendral went upstate for our radio partner WNYC to investigate.
In Arizona, home of SB 1070, the head of the state farm bureau seeks reforms that make it easier for migrant workers to cross the border to work in U.S. fields.
A roundup of news from the presidential campaign and other stories from around the nation.
Fi2W columnist Erwin de Leon says Georgia’s new immigration law isn’t just affecting undocumented farmworkers, it’s having a negative impact on the lives and well-being of ordinary citizens, including those who supported the get-tough policy.
A handful of aging braceros are holding a weeklong protest outside the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix to claim wages taken from their paychecks during a guest-worker program decades ago. (Photos: A. J. Alexander)
PHOENIX, Arizona — While thousands across the nation plan to march for immigration reform this Friday, May 1, a handful of former immigrant farmworkers in their seventies are holding a different protest here.
The men still call themselves braceros, the inheritors of a largely criticized guest-worker program agreement between the United States and Mexico to satisfy the need for labor during World War II. Their story offers a cautionary tale about the prospect of future guest-worker programs touted by political leaders such as Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl as part of the answer to the need for immigration reform.
The braceros’ weeklong rally started on Monday, April 27th, outside the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix to demand that Mexico’s government settle a 40-year-old debt with them. This was money that was taken from their paychecks while they worked in the American countryside. Mexico was supposed to create a fund for the workers with that money, but its government just kept it.
Between 1943 and 1964 about 4 million braceros worked in the fields. About 400 of them now reside in Arizona. After the Bracero Program ended, they stayed and continued to work as undocumented labor. Today, many like Dionisio Garcia, 76, don’t have much to show for it when it comes to retirement.
“We’re here to see if they pay us,” said Garcia, a member of the Frente Bi-Nacional de Ex-Braceros, a retired farmworkers group from Arizona that organized the protest.
On a Wednesday morning, Garcia and his fellow ex-braceros stood outside the consulate holding a large sign demanding payment. For Garcia –now an American citizen–, it’s hard to stand for more than a few minutes ever since a cow broke his back at a cattle ranch four years ago.
“I’d just found out there was some money that they owe us,” said Manuel Coronel, 81. Coronel hides from the Arizona sun under a hat, sitting in his motorized wheelchair as he watches people come and go into the consulate.
By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor
Barely a month before leaving office, President George W. Bush has instituted changes in a guest worker program for agricultural workers, prompting harsh criticism from both ethnic and mainstream media and immigrant advocates.
“Backstab to immigrants. President Bush changes rule at the last hour. Silence from Latino leaders,” screamed the cover of New York’s Hoy newspaper Tuesday. “A Cheap Shot at Workers,” was the headline of a New York Times editorial.
The H-2A program (which grants visas under that name) allows agricultural producers to hire foreign workers temporarily when they cannot find Americans to fill job vacancies. The Bush Administration claims the changes — which are expected to become official today with their publication in The Federal Register — will help reduce bureaucratic obstacles for employers who want to hire foreign farm workers.
