United Farm Workers Vice President Evelia Menjivar joins Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, a Republican appointee of Gov. Jeb Bush, at Thursday state Capitol news conference endorsing AgJobs, the bipartisan federal bill allowing immigrant farm workers to earn the right to permanently stay in this country by continuing to work in agriculture. Bronson, a fifth-generation Floridian, is a rancher and former state legislator.

Other Florida leaders supporting AgJobs at Thursday's event in Tallahassee include Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration wrote:

With broad bipartisan support, AgJobs is a comprehensive bill negotiated by the UFW and the nation's agricultural industry over a four-year period. It is backed by more than 400 organizations, including business, labor, religious, Latino and immigrant rights groups. Last year it garnered 63 co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate, including half of the Republicans.

"The legalization path will enable these undocumented workers to 'come out of the shadows and assert their basic rights in the workplace, creating an environment that will benefit U.S. and foreign-born farm workers in this country," Bishop Wenski wrote in a January op-ed piece in the Orlando Sentinel.

Other groups attending the press conference in support of AgJobs include Florida Legal Services, Florida Citrus Mutual, Farm Worker Association of Florida, National Farm Worker Ministry, Farm Worker Self Help and a representative from the state AFL-CIO.

Who: Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, Catholic Bishop Thomas Wenski and UFW Vice President Evelia Menjivar.

What: News conference reflecting broad bipartisan support for the 2005 AgJobs immigration reform bill.

When: 10 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005.

Where: Front of the Old Capitol steps on Monroe St. (inside the Capitol Rotunda if it rains), Tallahassee.

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