President Obama: Deporting undocumented farm workers would be ‘intolerable’
07/01/2010
President Obama: Deporting undocumented farm workers would be ‘intolerable’
United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez issued the following statement from the union’s Keene, Calif. headquarters in response to the President’s speech today expressing the urgent need to fix a broken immigration system through comprehensive immigration reform.
We welcome President Obama’s recognition of the vital role immigrant farm workers play in feeding America. In his address, the President said, “Migrant workers—mostly here illegally—have been the labor force of our farmers and agricultural producers for generations. So even if it was possible, a program of mass deportations would disrupt our economy and communities in ways that most Americans would find intolerable…We need to provide farms a legal way to hire the workers they rely on, and a path for those workers to earn legal status.”
President Obama recognizes reality as well as acknowledges American values in his speech. He knows that deporting all undocumented farm workers would cause the collapse of the agricultural industry. He reiterates his campaign pledge by wholeheartedly endorsing comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for immigrant working families. The President said the right thing. Now it is time for Congress to act.
Part of comprehensive reform is the bipartisan, broadly-supported AgJOBS proposal jointly negotiated by the UFW and the nation’s agricultural industry allowing undocumented farm workers to earn the right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture.
