Central Valley farm workers will rally Thursday evening in Reedley to protest stepped up immigration raids and intimidation and build support for the AgJobs bill allowing undocumented field laborers to earn permanent legal status. The Reedley event comes as the United Farm Workers is also organizing farm worker marches this week in the Salinas Valley, Ventura County and Delano.

Recent raids and intimidation by U.S. immigration authorities heighten the need for this landmark legislation, march organizers say. UFW offices across California have received numerous calls from farm workers and other Latinos afraid to leave their homes or take children to school. According to reports, people are often being questioned and arrested because of their skin color.

The bipartisan federal AgJobs bill now before Congress?S. 1645 and H.R. 3142, by U.S. Sens. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), and U.S. Reps. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.)?would allow undocumented farm workers to earn the legal right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture. Also strongly backed by the agricultural industry, AgJobs has the support of 63 co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate, including many Republicans.

AgJobs has been endorsed by hundreds of organizations representing a broad cross-section of employer associations, religious organizations, immigrant advocates, civil rights groups and unions from across the nation. The editorial boards of the Wall St. Journal, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, Fresno Bee, Salinas Californian, La Opinion, Miami Herald, New York Times and other newspapers around the U.S. have editorialized for the measure.

Who: Central Valley farm workers and their supporters.

What: United Farm Workers-organized rally against intimidation by U.S. immigration authorities and for the historic AgJobs reform bill now before Congress.

When: 7 p.m., Thursday, July 1, 2004.

Where: March starts at Pioneer Park - "G"Street (between 8th & 9th) and ends at UFW Office at 1133 "G" Street in Reedley.

- end -