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| Migrant farm workers protest immigration raids. Photo: David Bacon |
We Can Change an Unjust
Immigration Policy
Testimony given by David Bacon
at the People's Tribunal at the West County Detention Center in Richmond, CA
By David Bacon, 48 Hills
June 4, 2018
We've heard the living experiences
of people who have had no alternative to leaving home to escape violence, war
and poverty, who now find themselves imprisoned in the detention center in
front of us. And we have to ask, who is
responsible? Where did the violence and
poverty come from, that forced people to leave home, to cross our border with
Mexico, and then to be picked up and incarcerated here?
Overwhelmingly, it has come from
the actions of the government of this country, and the wealthy elites that it
has defended.[…]
Read the full testimony:
Growing Pains: Guest farm workers
face exploitation, dangerous conditions
By David Bacon
Capital and Main, June 6,
2018
The American Prospect,
June 8, 2018
Many migrant workers in California
on H-2A temporary agricultural visas are forced to contend with unsafe working
conditions, wage theft and other labor law violations. The H-2A temporary
agricultural program allows employers to bring workers from other countries,
mainly Mexico, for temporary farm labor in the U.S. The workers are given visas
that allow them to work in the U.S. but tie them to the employer that recruits
them. Part 2 of this story documents migrant workers housed like sardines, and
the use of immigration enforcement to expand the H-2A visa program
Tomato grower Harry Singh had an
idea for speeding up the harvest in the fields he rents at the Camp Pendleton
Marine Base near San Diego. His foreman told Serafín Rincón, 61, to pick beside
two imported contract workers in their 20s. In the summer heat, Rincón was told
to run. He could hardly keep up.
Rincón had come to work with his
friends Santiago Bautista and Rufino Zafra They were all longtime farm workers
in the area. Bautista had been working in San Diego since 2003, and Zafra since
1975. All day they had to listen to gritos(shouting) and insults from their
boss Celerino when they fell behind. "Stupid donkey, you're old now,"
he shouted at them. "You can't make it anymore!"[…]
Read the full article:
https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2018/06/growing-pains-part-one.html
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