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Leaders of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas Arrested in Civil Disobedience for Immigration Reform

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Mily Treviño-Sauceda and Alina Diaz, along with Monica Ramirez, represented Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and farmworker women today in a civil disobedience action for immigration reform that led to their arrests. The action, which included over 100 other women, was organized by the We Belong Together campaign. The women called on the House of Representatives to pass comprehensive and inclusive immigration reform legislation that treats women and children fairly. Farmworker Justice supports this call for inclusive and comprehensive immigration reform.

Unfortunately, House Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte’s Agricultural Guestworker Act, HR 1773, would devastate families. HR 1773 would tear apart families by failing to offer the current agricultural workforce and their family members any opportunity to earn citizenship. Instead, he would require undocumented farmworkers to self-deport with only a possibility to return in a second-class temporary worker status, with no opportunity to earn citizenship in the country they work to feed. His bill deliberately prohibits farmworkers’ family members from joining them in the harsh new guestworker program his bill would create. This one-sided piecemeal approach to immigration that singles out farmworkers and their families for harsh treatment with no access to citizenship must be opposed. Immigration reform must include a roadmap to citizenship for the 11 million, including farmworkers and their families.
  


Mily Treviño-Sauceda and Alina Diaz, along with Monica Ramirez, represented Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and farmworker women today in a civil disobedience action for immigration reform that led to their arrests. The action, which included over 100 other women, was organized by the We Belong Together campaign. The women called on the House of Representatives to pass comprehensive and inclusive immigration reform legislation that treats women and children fairly. Farmworker Justice supports this call for inclusive and comprehensive immigration reform.

Unfortunately, House Judiciary  Chairman Goodlatte’s Agricultural Guestworker Act, HR 1773, would devastate families. HR 1773 would tear apart families by failing to offer the current agricultural workforce and their family members any opportunity to earn citizenship. Instead, he would require undocumented farmworkers to self-deport with only a possibility to return in a second-class temporary worker status, with no opportunity to earn citizenship in the country they work to feed. His bill deliberately prohibits farmworkers’ family members from joining them in the harsh new guestworker program his bill would create. This one-sided piecemeal approach to immigration that singles out farmworkers and their families for harsh treatment with no access to citizenship must be opposed. Immigration reform must include a roadmap to citizenship for the 11 million, including farmworkers and their families.

You can see photos of the event on our facebook page.