Two Reviews: In the Fields of the North / En los campos del norte

Two new reviews of David Bacon’s latest book have come out recently. Both are available at Bacon’s blog, The Reality Check:

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2017/08/two-reviews-in-fields-of-north-en-los.html

Review: In the Fields of the North (En los campos del norte)

By Eve Ottenberg, Labor Notes

August 8, 2017

David Bacon's unforgettable new English-Spanish photo-essay, In the Fields of the North (En los campos del norte), is about migrant farm workers on the West Coast. Bacon says that without unions, the state of affairs in the fruit and vegetable fields would be even sorrier.[…]

Read the full review:

http://labornotes.org/blogs/2017/08/review-fields-north-en-los-campos-del-norte

Chasing the Harvest' and 'In the Fields of the North'

By Elaine Elinson, SF Gate

July 19, 2017

In 1946, Carlos Bulosan documented the gritty lives of Filipino migrant workers in California in his autobiographical novel "America Is in the Heart."

Since that time, there have been a wealth of books about California farmworkers, from Steinbeck's iconic "Grapes of Wrath" to Peter Matthiesen's "Sal Si Puedes," published at the height of the Delano grape strike, to Matthew Garcia's recent "From the Jaws of Victory," with revelations from an excavation of United Farm Workers archives.[…]

Read the full review:

http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Chasing-the-Harvest-and-In-the-Fields-of-11298697.php

Renegotiating NAFTA Will Only Serve the Rich -- Just Like It Always Has

By David L. Wilson, Truthout 

August 21, 2017

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect at midnight on January 1,

A Mexican response to NAFTA, January 2994

1994. That night, thousands of Indigenous Mayans rose up in arms in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, seizing at least five towns and declaring NAFTA a "deathcertificate" for people like themselves. This was just the beginning of Mexico's troubles in a year that brought countless protests, hotly disputed elections and the assassinations of two of the then-ruling party's leaders. 1994 ended with a sudden devaluation of the peso, the start of an economic collapse from which the country didn't recover fully for years.

NAFTA is back in the news this month: On August 16, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico, the other two NAFTA nations, to open talks on renegotiating the pact.

While it's true that NAFTA was just one of the many problems Mexico had in the 1990s, we have to wonder, given the renewed focus on the trade accord, why US mainstream media have carried so little discussion of the events that accompanied NAFTA's rollout in Mexico.[…]

Read the full article:

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41671-renegotiating-nafta-will-only-serve-the-rich-just-like-it-always-has

Trump Guts Obama’s Program for Central American Kids

The White House is now cutting out part of the Central American Minors (CAM) program that the Obama administration set up in 2014 to admit some underage refugees fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

We wrote two years ago that the CAM program seemed to be less about saving kids than “about giving the impression that the U.S. government is finally addressing the root causes of immigration—causes which to a large extent are the result of past and present U.S. policies.” In fact, as of earlier this year, the program had only led to the admission of some 2,400 refugees and parolees, with about 2,700 others granted conditional parole but still waiting to come to the U.S. But the program has at least saved some children from danger, and now Trump is eliminating the parole option, leaving the conditional parolees stranded in Central America.

Presumably this will gratify the rightwing politicians and journalists who targeted the CAM program back in 2015. Then-senator Jeff Sessions claimed the program had “created a dangerous situation" and the fact-challenged Daily Caller warned about “potentially millions of current and former illegal immigrants” bringing their children into the country.—TPOI editor

Jeff Sessions' "dangerous situation."  Photo: Jennifer Whitney/NY Times                     

Program allowing some minors from Central America into U.S. halted

By Greg Moran, San Diego Union Tribune

August 15, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday it plans to shut down a program that offered some children and young adults from three Central Amercian countries a chance to lawfully immigrate to the U.S. to join their parents.

The decision will close down a portion of the Central American Minors program, established in 2014 under President Obama as a way to slow the stream of minors from strife-torn Central American countries.

The program allows unmarried youths under 21 years old from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala who had one parent who had lawful status in the U.S. to apply for refugee status, from their home country.

If the refugee status was denied. they could still be allowed into the U.S. under humanitarian parole, a way to legally be in the country that is not permanent but must be renewed periodically.

In an announcement to be published in the Federal Register today DHS said that it was terminating the humanitarian parole part of the CAM program.[…]

Read the full article:

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-refugee-children-20170815-story.html

Manhattan Church Provides Sanctuary for Mother Targeted by ICE

A Guatemalan immigrant has taken sanctuary with her three children at the Holyrood Episcopal Church in northern Manhattan; the move came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told her to prepare for deportation. An August 17 press conference announcing her decision included the New Sanctuary Movement, Fr. Luis Barrios, NYC Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, NYS Assembly Member Carmen de la Rosa, and many others.

Amanda Morales with her children and supporters. Photo Prensa Libre: Mundo Hispánico

Guatemalan immigrant seeks sanctuary in Manhattan church

By Claudia Torrens, AP via Seattle Times

August 17, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) — A Guatemalan immigrant with no authorization to live in the U.S. entered a church in Manhattan with her three children on Thursday to seek refuge from immigration authorities.

Amanda Morales, who has lived illegally in the U.S. since 2004, said she decided to seek sanctuary instead of showing up to her appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Morales said ICE told her during her last appointment this month that she would be deported and needed to buy a one-way plane ticket to Guatemala.

“I am scared, but at the same time I feel safe here,” she said during a press conference at Holyrood Church, in the Washington Heights neighborhood.[…]

Read the full article:

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/guatemalan-immigrant-seeks-sanctuary-in-manhattan-church/

Manhattan church offers sanctuary to immigrant mother facing deportation

By NY1 News

August 18, 2017

A Manhattan church and several city leaders are standing by an undocumented immigrant facing deportation.

Amanda Morales is seeking refuge at the Holyrood Church in Washington Heights.

Morales moved from Guatemala to the United States in 2004 and is the mother of three children — all U.S. citizens.[…]

Read the full article and watch the video:

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2017/08/18/manhattan-church-offers-sanctuary-to-immigrant-mother-facing-deportation.html

When Deportation Is a Death Sentence: One Domestic Worker's Fight for Survival

By Sheila Bapat, Truthout 
August 13, 2017
Reina Gomez, 49, has been cleaning homes and caring for elderly people in South Florida since 2002. Her earnings as a domestic worker support her treatments for leukemia at a public South Florida hospital. Gomez was diagnosed with leukemia in 2007.

On July 31, Gomez had an appointment with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). Gomez is facing deportation to Honduras, where she lived before fleeing to the United States to escape an abusive relationship. ICE told Gomez to buy an open-date ticket to Honduras and to bring it with her to her July 31 appointment. While ICE didn't render a final decision on her case on July 31, it plans to in mid-August.

And so, the specter of deportation looms, even though two Honduran hospitals have already told Gomez that they do not have the resources to treat her leukemia.[...]

Read the full article:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41579-when-deportation-is-a-death-sentence-one-domestic-worker-s-fight-for-survival

August 15: Nationwide Events to Defend DACA

Together We Can Protect DACA and Immigrant Youth!

By United We Dream
August 11, 2017

August 15th marks 5 years since 800,000 immigrant youth have been able to get legal protection, go to college, and support their families because of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).

But some right wing Republicans have threatened to take it away as early as September 5 so we HAVE to mobilize now. Are you ready?

Ending DACA and a program called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 300,000 immigrants from Africa, Haiti, central America and other countries means the lives of over a million immigrants are in danger.

On August 15th, we need YOU to join thousands across the country to protect DACA and immigrant youth!

The clock is ticking – we must take to the streets and stand our ground! Let’s do this.

Join the march in Washington for DACA and immigrant youth on August 15th, or find an event near you:

http://defenddaca.com/

Braceros Strike After One Worker Dies

By David Bacon, American Prospect

August 9, 2017

Risking deportation, Washington state farmworkers protest dangerous conditions in the fields.

A farmworker’s death in the broiling fields of Washington state has prompted his fellow braceros to put their livelihoods in jeopardy by going on strike, joining a union, being discharged—and risking deportation.

Honesto Silva Ibarra died in Harborview hospital in Seattle on Sunday night, August 6.  Silva, a married father of three, was a guest worker—in Spanish, a “contratado”—brought to the United States under the H-2A visa program, to work in the fields.

Miguel Angel Ramirez Salazar, another contratado, says Silva went to his supervisor at Sarbanand Farms last week, complaining that he was sick and couldn’t work. “They said if he didn’t keep working, he’d be fired for ‘abandoning work.’ But after a while he couldn’t work at all.”

Silva finally went to the Bellingham Clinic, about an hour south of the farm where he was working, in Sumas, close to the Canadian border. By then it was too late, however. He was sent to Harborview, where he collapsed and died.[…]

Read the full article:

http://prospect.org/article/braceros-strike-after-one-worker-dies

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2017/08/braceros-strike-after-one-worker-dies.html

Photo: David Bacon