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CONTACT: United Farm Workers (UFW) Maria Machuca, (661) 889-2758 media@ufwpress.com |
UFW President Joins Stephen Colbert in Calling on Jobless Citizens to Replace Immigrant Farm Workers
Urging Congress to fix a broken immigration system with immigration reform
KEENE, Calif. - July 8 - United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez appears with comedian Stephen Colbert on "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, July 8 as part of the national "Take Our Jobs" campaign aimed at recruiting U.S. citizens and legal residents to fill jobs that frequently go to undocumented farm workers and to urge enactment of immigration reform.
The UFW has launched the national "Take Our Jobs" campaign that invites U.S. citizens and legal residents to replace tens of thousands of immigrant field laborers, most of whom are undocumented.
Rodriguez and Colbert will address growing anti-immigrant sentiment and encourage Americans to apply for jobs that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calls one of the top 10 most dangerous in the nation. The appearance is part of the national campaign to generate public interest in the Take Our Jobs effort.
Organizers of the campaign plan to take it to Congress in hopes of getting much needed immigration reform passed. The drive spotlights the issue of immigrant laborers who are the backbone of the country's agricultural economy. Without reform, domestic agriculture could be crippled, leading to more jobs moving off shore.
The farm worker population of the United States is overwhelmingly immigrant, with about 85 percent of workers born outside of the United States. Today, the vast majority of farm workers are unauthorized, according to government statistics.
The UFW has negotiated the AgJobs bill with the agricultural industry that would give undocumented farm workers presently here the right to earn legal status by continuing to work in agriculture. Senators Diane Feinstein (D-Ca.) and Richard Lugar (R-In.) are the principal co-authors in the Senate and U.S. Reps. Adam Putnam (R-Fa.) and Howard Berman (D-Ca.) are chief sponsors in the House.
"The Colbert Report" will air at 11:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on the Comedy Central cable network.
Visit the campaign website at: www.takeourjobs.org
4 Comments so far
Show AllThat's awesome! They might actually recruit some US born farm workers. Sadly most will quit within the first week.
I went out to the website, but I couldn't find out how much I would make per hour.
When you think about you can thank that war criminal Lincoln for this mess my goodness Sadman Hussien killed less people to hold his Union together and he was hung for it.
T.S.W.R.A.!!!!
Regarding the Take Our Jobs media campaign exampled by the UFW’s president Arturo Rodriguez on "The Colbert Report" on the television Comedy Channel and UFW’s vice president Giev Kashkooli on "The Alan Colmes Show" on Fox News Radio this passed Thursday.
This campaign is nothing but a sham.
I'm unemployed and I'm more than willing to take a job in the agriculture industry. I signed up for the program and jumped through all of the hoops that the Take Our Jobs campaign directed me to. In California there is One (1) job for an Agriculture Engineer out of 47 possible jobs listed by following Take Our Jobs directions. Unfortunately I don’t have the qualifications for this position and I doubt that illegal trespassers in this country do either. There are no jobs, zero (0), available under Farmworkers and Laborers. These liars in the hierarchy of the UFW do not expect or want me to take a farm laborer job.
Saying that Americans do not want these jobs because the work is to hard is an insult. Farm owners and managers don’t want most Americans because they will have to pay what every other industry has to pay for workers. These hirers enjoy there ability to exploit illegal workers and treat them unfairly. Why doesn’t the UFW do something about this travesty? Instead they spend UFW members union dues spreading the lie that Americans are lazy.
The purpose of this media campaign is to misdirect attention from illegal trespassers coming into the United States and to foster sympathy for law breakers. Yes, I know they are commonly referred to as illegal immigrants; however, this is like calling a meth dealer an unlicensed pharmacist. Furthermore, I do not believe that most illegal trespassers are interested in immigrating to the United States. They are interested in sending money to their families in impoverished countries like Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, etc. I sympathize with their plight.
I understand that the Immigration program in the US is broken and needs reform, but first the borders must be secured. The people crossing the borders are subject to horrendous conditions and are exploited on both sides of the border. Citizens and law enforcement officials are also subject to attacks from illegal trespassers who have no interest in obeying the laws.
Unfortunately the federal government perpetrates, perpetuates and even promulgates this illegal activity by refusing to enforce its own laws. In other words, I believe the federal government is actively, knowingly and publicly breaking the laws by refusing to enforce them and by attempting to prevent non federal government enforcement agencies from enforcing the current laws.
The current immigration system also encourages charlatans and unscrupulous lawyers to prey on those attempting to gain legal worker status or immigration. This is an outrage and must be stopped. Curtailing this activity would foster greater trust in potential immigrants and guest workers leading to an environment where crossing the border illegally for legitimate purposes would be unnecessary.
The answer is to secure the border and create equitable, humane, enforceable laws that make it simpler and safer for guest workers and immigrants to be welcomed across the border.
I encourage the United Farm Workers of America to discontinue the absurd and ridiculous Take Our Jobs sham.