Central Coast farm workers and supporters on Saturday will walk the last leg of their five-day march up the Salinas Valley from Chualar to Salinas to protest immigration raids and intimidation and build support for the AgJobs bill allowing undocumented field laborers to earn permanent legal status. The United Farm Workers-led trek-from King City to Salinas-has begun each day at 8 a.m. and ended with a rally around 7 p.m. (See updated daily schedule below for both Friday and Saturday.)

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.

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