Thread: UFW says AgJobs could legalize 100,000 undocumented farmwork

May 31, 2007


watsonville
UFW says AgJobs could legalize 100,000 undocumented farmworkers on Central Coast
By Tom Ragan
Sentinel staff writer
WATSONVILLE — Efren Barajas, second vice president of the United Farm Workers, snuck into the country by hiding in the trunk of a car of a friend who drove from Tijuana into the U.S. border city of San Ysidro.


Efren Barajas, second vice president of the national United Farm Workers, is backing AgJobs, a program that would allow 1.5 million farmworkers to become legal residents in the U.S. (Kate Falconer/Sentinel)
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He knows what it's like to be an illegal immigrant, which is why he said he is backing AgJobs, a program that would allow 1.5 million farmworkers to become legal residents in the United States.

"I was a farmworker once. I know the feeling. Your whole life changes when you get your documents," said Barajas, 50, who became a U.S. citizen in the mid-1990s after sneaking across the border in 1974 to pick almonds in Modesto. "You constantly live in fear that immigration is going to get you, and it's one of the worst feelings"

And yet Barajas' support for AgJobs carries a twist. Its backers are hoping it is incorporated into the immigration overhaul that's currently being debated in the U.S. Senate, even if it means setting up a temporary guest worker program that would offer no path to citizenship for thousands of foreign workers.

Such programs, in fact, go against everything UFW founder Cesar Chavez believed. During his life, he would often caution against such programs, saying they only made workers more vulnerable to exploitation in exchange for low-wage jobs.

But Barajas said times have changed, and that if Chavez were alive today, he would feel good about the trade-off if and when it occurs.

"Under AgJobs, we're talking about legalizing 1 million farmworkers," said Barajas, whose job on the Central Coast is to secure union contracts for farmworkers, whether illegal or legal. "I don't think that's a bad deal"

If the AgJobs passes, Barajas said an estimated 100,000 undocumented workers could become legal residents in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties. Print Article




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Hmmmmm. So they're saying that instead of just having poop on our veggies we'll be getting veggies that are POOPED ON LEGALLY?

Damn but I sure feel much better now.

"Under AgJobs, we're talking about legalizing 1 million farmworkers,"

Only 26% of farm workers are non-citizens currently!

100,00 moving into 3 counties? How is the school system supposed to handle them?