The labor leader in his day was no more tolerant of illegal immigration than the Arizona Minutemen are now. Worried that the hiring of illegal immigrants drove down wages, Chávez - according to numerous historical accounts - instructed union members to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service to report the presence of illegal immigrants in the fields and demand that the agency deport them. UFW officials were even known to picket INS offices to demand a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
To many on the political left, community organizer César Chávez, founder of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW), is venerated and looked upon almost as the Patron Saint of the Downtrodden and Abused, especially among the Latino community.
The making of a myth. The image of César Chávez with the UFW and Mexican national flag in the backdrop.
Credits: UFW.org
Despite Barack Obama recently designating the home of Chávez as America's newest national monument, the labor leader has a past history with illegal immigrants that most Obamanistas would rather not be known.
October 10, 2012
By: Timothy Whiteman
examiner.com
As reported by Fox News, while speaking at the dedication ceremony of Chávez's sprawling 187-acre hacienda grande named La Paz (The Peace), Obama proclaimed Chávez as;
"a hero who brought hope to millions of poor, disenfranchised farm workers who otherwise might have remained 'invisible' to much of the nation."
The Chief Executive went on to state;
"Our world is a better place because Cesar Chavez decided to change it."
But Not So Good For Illegal Immigrants...
As cited* by the University of Houston, Chávez had quite a different opinion of those downtrodden who entered into this nation illegally, and more importantly, posed a threat to the success of his UFW;
"... when the farm workers strike and their strike is successful, the employers go to Mexico and have unlimited, unrestricted use of illegal alien strikebreakers to break the strike.
And, for over 30 years, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has looked the other way and assisted in the strikebreaking.
I do not remember one single instance in 30 years where the Immigration service has removed strikebreakers....
The employers use professional smugglers to recruit and transport human contraband across the Mexican border for the specific act of strikebreaking...."
Even More Damning...
Ruben Navarrette, Jr. of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote (in part) March 30, 2005;
"Despite the fact that [César] Chávez is these days revered among Mexican-American activists, the labor leader in his day was no more tolerant of illegal immigration than the Arizona Minutemen are now. Worried that the hiring of illegal immigrants drove down wages, Chávez - according to numerous historical accounts - instructed union members to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service to report the presence of illegal immigrants in the fields and demand that the agency deport them. UFW officials were even known to picket INS offices to demand a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
And in 1973, in one of the most disgraceful chapters in UFW history, the union set up a 'wet line' to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the United States. Under the guidance of Chávez 's cousin, Manuel, UFW members tried at first to convince the immigrants not to cross. When that didn't work, they physically attacked the immigrants and left some bloody in the process. It happened in the same place that the Minutemen are now planning to gather: the Arizona-Mexico border.
At the time, The Village Voice said that the UFW conducted a 'campaign of random terror against anyone hapless enough to fall into its net.' In their book, 'The Fight in the Fields,' Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval recall the border incident and write that the issue of how to deal with the undocumented was 'particularly vexing' for Chávez."
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