House Republicans plan to kill immigration reform

House Republicans plan to kill immigration reform

Sept.27, 2013.

 In August, as Congressional leaders turned their attention to Syria, cutting food stamps, and provoking a   budget crises, efforts to pass immigration reform  by progressive pro immigration  groups intensified.  In California, labor and its allies targeted Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield with demonstrations by thousands of farm workers, faith communities, and immigrant rights groups, including a 285-mile pilgrimage  of protest to the Bakersfield office of  McCarthy,  the  majority whip for the Republican Party  in the House. (see photo)  McCarthy is not usually counted among the extreme Tea Party Congresspersons.  The Bakersfield area district has a 35 percent Latino population and 22.8 percent of the voters in the 2010 election were Latino.

While most Republicans remain with the Tea Party’s anti-immigrant position to only pass legislation to enhance border security and  intensify enforcement, bringing  even more mass prosecutions and deportations,  two  California Republican Congressmen from districts with a high density of Latinos ( Jeff Denham and David Valado)  have called for some features of reform  including a path toward citizenship, but oppose the  provisions of Senate bill.   Community groups are focusing on changing the votes of  Republican holdouts in districts around the nation.  However on September 20, Texas Republicans John Carter and Sam Johnson  resigned from the house bi-partisan effort known as the Gang of Seven.  Their action probably ends the possibility of House compromise or a bi-partisan bill from the House.  In response two progressive Democrats from the group of 7, Grijalva  (Arizona) and Becerra (Ca.)  intend to introduce a bill similar to  the Senate Bill S 744, stripped of its Republican amendment to add  $ 26 billion of additional border enforcement.

Guest Workers threaten strike at Sakuma Brothers Farm

by David Bacon
BURLINGTON, WASHINGTON -- Filemon Pineda traveled a thousand miles to northwest Washington to pick strawberries and blueberries, as he's done for three years.  He left Santa Maria, California, in April, got picking jobs for himself and his wife at Sakuma Brothers Farms, one of the state's largest berry growers, and was assigned a dilapidated cabin in Labor Camp 2.

He bought a cheap bunk bed, and the company gave him some ancient mattresses, one even wrapped in an old black plastic sheet.  His three small children slept together on one bunk, while he spread the other mattresses on the concrete floor, which he covered with carpet samples.

When he went to work, though, he found he wasn't making enough to survive the coming winter, once the family returned to California.  He and his coworkers in Camp 2 stewed over their problems for several months.  Finally, in July, they'd had enough.  When the blueberry picking started, the company fired Federico Lopez on July 10 for asking for a wage raise, and workers went on strike on July 11 to get his job back.

They organized a committee, Families United for Justice, and later formulated a list of demands that included wage raises and improvements in conditions in the labor camp where they lived.  Sakuma Brothers Farms has two labor camps - temporary housing for migrant workers during the picking.  Over 200 families live in Camp 2.

Lopez was rehired on July 15, and workers returned to their picking jobs while they continued to negotiate with the company.  On July 20 they struck again, accusing the company of lowering their piecerate wage.  On July 26 they went back to work, while continuing to talk about wage increases.  Company picking records showed that 248 workers had participated in the strike - the vast majority of the 278 working at the time.

In the course of these negotiations, however, the workers discovered the limit to any improvements they could expect.  Sakuma Brothers Farms had made an application with the Department of Labor for 160 H2A guest workers in April, which a labor contractor would hire in Mexico, and bring to the farm in August to pick late blueberries and blackberries.

"They negotiated with us, which was a big achievement," explains Rosalinda Guillen, director of Community2Community.  The farm worker advocacy and organizing project she heads in northwest Washington was the workers' key source of support.

SEIU praises the new immigration bill S 744.

After more than a decade of fighting for commonsense immigration reform, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina commended the passage of the bipartisan legislation before pivoting to the fight that lies ahead in the House. 

"What we can undoubtedly affirm is that this bill will set a new precedent and will mend much of our broken immigration system. It will allow millions of our friends, colleagues, families and neighbors to enter the threshold into American society, democracy and our economy. The lives of all families will be impacted for the better as will our economy that will stand to flourish.

"What lies ahead will not be easy or pretty, but what stands before the House is a model of compromise that stood the test of scrutiny, heated debate and challenging amendments. The bill is an agreement between two political parties that found common ground in upholding a roadmap to citizenship unfettered by burdensome barriers, protecting future and current working families and strengthening the unity of families."