Thread: CA-UFW plans immigration rallies

UFW plans immigration rallies
BY MARIA INES ZAMUDIO • mzamudio@thecalifornian.com • March 18, 2009

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Thousands of farmworkers across Monterey County are being called to rally next week in support of legalization for undocumented workers.



Starting Sunday and continuing through March 29, the United Farm Workers union has organized events in Salinas, Greenfield, King City, Soledad, Gonzales and Chualar.

"We want immigration reform," said organizer Eulogio Donato Solano. "We have faith that this mobilization will help our president" achieve it, Solano said in Spanish.

He said the immigration reform movement has been re-energized with President Barack Obama in the White House.

Before that, immigration issues had been placed on the political back-burner following the failed attempt by then-President George W. Bush and former Mexican President Vicente Fox to redefine migrant policies, said Juan Jose Gutierrez, director of the Institute for Mexican Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay.

During the beginning of the 2008 presidential campaign, immigration was a hot-button topic, but the worsening economy pushed the issue away from candidates' attention, said Gutierrez, who is also an associate professor of anthropology.

"There are millions of workers and no policy," he said. "The status quo is unsustainable."

Katherine Dolbec, executive director of the Monterey County Republican Party, disagrees.

Dolbec said the GOP respects immigrants who have gone through the legal process of becoming residents and citizens.

"We support legal immigration and the current immigration laws that are in place," she said. "And we call on the government to enforce the laws."

Not all Republicans share that view.

Last Friday, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said one of her deepest regrets from her time in office was the failure of the Bush administration to achieve real immigration reform.

Rice said immigrants are critical to the country's financial health, and reform was needed to fuel the next round of economic growth.

"If we ever lose that and start to believe somehow that it is instead a threat to us to have those people come here, we are going to lose one of the strongest elements, not only of our national wealth, but also of our national soul," she said.



http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/2 ... /903180306

I think I am going to be sick.