Farmworkers Self-Help, Inc.

First Stage Completed at My Other House

2008-11-19T15:22:12-05:00

Alex and Zak Abati-Brown and Jose Amateco place the last tile in the new stage at My Other House.Really, a real stage! Members of Teen Dream Team recently laid the foundation for the stage at My Other House. The stage is actually a section of computer flooring that, once carpeted, creates an 18’ by 10’ stage where a variety of performances can take place. Through My Other House we are hoping to offer the youth several creative outlets. Music, poetry or drama performances can take place on the stage. Bruce and James at Rez House have plans to add some lighting so that it will feel like a real performance space. While the renovations are not yet complete, our youth are already making use of the new building, holding separate meetings for the boys and the girls on Wednesday evenings. We are still looking for video game systems and large televisions. The TV’s don’t have to be new, just in good condition as they will only be used with the games systems and not for regular television viewing.

Also on our wish list:

Drywall to complete the bathroom.
Floor Tile – 2,000 square feet.
A new roof - we would like to replace the low ceiling with a cathedral ceiling.

TDT Youth Look For Better Ideas

2008-11-05T14:39:23-05:00

Marisol Morales works with some of our younger TDT members.Some of the youngest members of our Teen Dream Team program recently participated in the Center for Health, Environment and Justice’s Green Flag Schools Program. Schools across the nation are using the Green Flag School Program to make their schools healthier places to work and learn. This flexible three step program will help kids advance their schools environmental behaviors and become a shining example to others. Throughout the process, students will investigate and problem-solve in a team, using research skills and making oral and written presentations. Several of our youth made postcards that they sent to the CHEJ. The program teaches kids about recycling, integrated pest management, clean indoor air and non-toxic products. CHEJ and Farmworkers Self-Help will be working together on future projects that will call attention too many of the pollutants that so many of us assume to be safe because they are already in our homes and schools.

My Other House Needs Your Old Games

2008-10-28T09:55:12-04:00

So much is going on at My Other House, our new teen center on Calle de Milagros in Tommytown. The power is on, the water will be on by the end of the week and the stage will be in place next week. At one time My Other House was a pool hall and game room but gone now are the pool tables and other games. We are planning a high tech game center for the kids consisting of several Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 consoles. This will allow us to monitor what games our youth are playing and will give us the ability to stop any objectionable game content from coming in the door.
We will be approaching the game manufacturers to see if they will donate the game consoles but chances are slim that they would be willing to give up a game system, so if you know anyone that has a spare Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, or Sony Playstation 3 game system, send them our way. More importantly, we will need games for those systems so we have placed this item on our wish list. If you have any used Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3 games that you or your kids have grown tired of, consider giving those games a new life. Our kids generally do not have access to video games and they would love to play them. We are only looking for games that are rated acceptable for teens.
If you have a game that you would like to donate, contact Margarita or James at 352-567-1432. If you don't have any games but would still like to do something to help, click on the Donate Now button at the right side of this page and use your credit card to make a donation to our My Other House Games Library. New games cost about $40 and used ones can be found for about $20. Remember, there is so much more to what My Other House is all about but we need things that will make them want to come before we can reach out to our youth on a deeper level.

Where Has Our Compassion Gone?

2008-10-17T11:38:34-04:00

What would you do if you were told that your husband might be one of three people found dead in the desert? What if you would have to wait three months for DNA testing to confirm your worst fears? Roberto Sanchez-Martinez of Lacoochee, Florida, was only 25 years old. His crime? Seeking a better life for himself and his family and driving without a license. His sentence, deportation in July and then death in October. A body found in the desert of Mexico with Roberto’s identification papers, remains scattered by animals , yet his wife clings to hope and waits by the door every night hoping that he will walk in at any moment.

Roberto's wife and daughter, now uncertain as to his fate and their future.His little girl is just four old and she will grow up only knowing that her father died trying to get back to her and her mother. Some would say that he was undocumented, illegal and that he got what he deserved. I wonder, where has our compassion gone, or did we ever have any? The last paycheck that he earned and would have received while he was in jail awaiting deportation, was cashed, his signature forged. His wife has been forced to sell the family car just to pay the rent. I wonder what life holds for the two loves of his life that he was trying to get home to. What will become of them? When did a man-made border become more important than human life? All this man wanted was a better life but the people in charge said NO. All he wanted was to see his wife and child but the powers-that-be said NO. God told us to love one another as we love ourselves, but we said NO. I pray that God will forgive us for all that we do to our brothers and sisters. If you would like to help Roberto's wife make ends meet while she awaits the results of the DNA testing, FSH is accepting donations on her behalf. Send what ever you feel you can to FSH and mark the memo line of your check for Roberto's Family.

Pesticide Review Council Update

2008-10-14T10:11:44-04:00

The Pesticide Review Council met at the end of September and there were four agenda items of interest to farmworker concerns. Jeannie Economos gave us this report:

Soil Fumigant Reviews: There was much discussion and opposition to the Risk Mitigation Options proposed by EPA from the growers and agricultural interests. Growers feel that the restrictions proposed will be too difficult to follow and could result in much acreage, due to mandated buffer zones, taken out of production. Cabbage and strawberries are expected to be significantly impacted. The Florida Farm Bureau is pro-actively opposing these measures, during this final comment period. In fact, Florida is taking the lead in organizing other states to collaborate in taking a coordinated response to oppose these restrictions. (There has, apparently, been very little feedback to EPA from other states.) In addition, research dollars for alternatives are very limited, especially in this declining economy, and the FDACS budget is unlikely to be increased to fill the need for the stricter enforcement measures that will be needed. FDACS staff reviewed the new measures for the participants in the meeting.
EPA released their mitigation measures (a summary is available for anyone interested) for 5 soil fumigants after an extensive review process, that included input from many constituencies, including farmworkers and farmworker groups, which we participated actively in in Florida. The results of the EPA’s review of the 5 fumigant pesticides was that they released very stringent measures, and adopted many of the suggestions that came from our collective groups nationwide that opposed these toxic chemicals. Though EPA has said that these new measures are final, they have still opened up a comment period to get feedback from affected stakeholders.

Worker Protection Compliance Activities: A power point presentation of the WPS enforcement numbers for the period 7/1/2007 – 6/30/2008 listed the statistics of enforcement activities during this period. There were 1,241 inspections conducted, with 482 violations identified at 254 of those inspections. The majority of the WPS violations were associated with worker training, central information display, decontamination supplies and lack of personal protection equipment for workers and handlers. Under the new Enforcement Response Guidelines adopted in 2006, DACS has assessed $37,200 in fines for the current period (thru 6/30/08), and collected $27,000 of those fines. DACS feels that workers are becoming more knowledgeable about their rights and protections in the workplace. (Maybe that is why they are looking for H2A workers from Thailand.)

Ground Water Advisory Label Statements: The PRC will be making recommendations to the EPA to revise their ground water advisory statements on pesticide labels. Their concern is that the way the advisory is currently stated, it could potentially make the grower liable for groundwater contamination, rather than the pesticide registrant. One of their concerns is that the label mentions “ground water contamination”, and the PRC wants that changed to “leaching to ground water.” Our concern is that the language not be weakened to suggest non-contamination of groundwater, but the accountability should be on the part of the pesticide registrant, not the grower, unless the grower is using the pesticide contrary to label instructions.

Endosulfan-Everglades National Park Issues: EPA and the National Park Service (NPS) are concerned about effects of endosulfan contamination on wildlife in the Everglades National Park area. (and, what about the health of farmworkers??) There is pressure by EPA and NPS for DACS and SFWMD to devise and conduct further studies in the area. FDACS conducted a power point presentation outlining the results of SFWMD studies and monitoring they have done of endosulfan levels in water and sediments in the Everglades area. The crops with the highest usage of endosulfan in this area are tomatoes and peppers. The break down products of endosulfan are as toxic as endosulfan itself. (Like, DDT, DDE, DDD.) Alpha-endosulfan is highly volatile. Endosulfan bio-accumulates in fish tissue. Most fish samples they studied were not at levels of concern (but, they tested mostly mosquito fish, and not a diverse sampling of fish tissue), but there were several that were of high concentrations. There seemed to be no correlation between levels of endosulfan in water and the levels in the fish tested. It was mentioned that endosulfan has been shown to be bio-accumulating globally. This, of course, is of great significance, but was stated as kind of an after thought towards the end of the presentation. There are new label restrictions for endosulfan, which include a reduced maximum application rate among other changes, and growers are worried that the study to be done will occur before they have enough time to implement the new label instructions, and thus, show high levels of endosulfan. However, endosulfan is an organochlorine and most organochlorines have been banned because they are so harmful. They mentioned that PANNA and NRDC have a lawsuit pending against EPA regarding the continued use of it in the U.S.

FDACS is focusing on grower outreach and compliance in the vicinity of Everglades National Park to make sure that growers understand the importance of following the new label requirements.

The Pesticide Review Council (PRC) advises the Commissioner of Agriculture regarding the sale, use and registration of pesticides and advises government agencies, including the State University System, regarding their responsibilities pertaining to pesticides. The council serves as a statewide forum for the coordination of pesticide-related activities to eliminate duplication of effort and maximize protection of human health and the environment. The Pesticide Review Council consists of eleven (11) scientific members and operates under the authority of Chapter 487, Florida Statutes.
Jeannie Economos is our friend and the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator at the Farmworker Association of Florida in Apopka, Florida.

EPA Bans Carbofuran

2008-10-10T11:12:34-04:00

The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will ban any residue of the toxic pesticide carbofuran on domestic and imported foods. The chemical is applied to a variety of crops in the United States and abroad, including:

Alfalfa
Bananas
Coffee
Corn
Potatoes
Rice
Soybeans
Sugar Cane
Sunflowers

EPA officials say they made the decision on the grounds that the chemical residue poses an unacceptable safety risk to toddlers. The move came as a surprise to environmentalists as well as the US manufacturer, FMC Corporation. A million pounds of carbofuran are applied each year in the United States, affecting less than 1 percent of the nation's farmed acres, according to the EPA, but it is used more heavily in developing countries. The EPA had said earlier this year that it would not apply the ban to imported food, but now says it will.
The EPA indicated two years ago that it intended to cancel carbofuran's registration, a different regulatory path that determines whether a product can be sold in the United States, because of the hazards it poses to workers who apply it as well as to birds and other wildlife. Manufacturer FMC has been fighting the move in federal court, arguing that the agency must prove that the chemical represents a public danger.
A 2006 EPA document examining the pesticide's environmental effects found that if a flock of mallard ducks wandered into an alfalfa field within a week after the chemical was applied, 84 percent of the birds would die. The pesticide also kills bees, which have experienced an unexplained massive population collapse in recent years.

Weed Killer Chemicals Linked to Brain Cancer

2008-10-10T09:27:12-04:00

Women who are regularly exposed to pesticides in the workplace are twice as likely to develop a common form of brain cancer, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the National Cancer Institute and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Researchers examined the connection between brain cancer and workplace pesticide exposure in 1,400 adults living in the United States. In contrast to relying only on job titles as prior studies on the topic had done, the researchers estimated each participant's workplace pesticide exposure. A total of 104 women had been exposed to pesticide. Among these, 33 (one-third) had developed brain cancer.

The researchers found that women who had been exposed were two times more likely to develop a variety of brain tumor known as meningioma than women who had not been exposed. There was no connection between chemical exposure and meningioma in men. In addition, the researchers found no connection between exposure and risk of brain cancer in general for men, women, or the general population.

Meningioma is one of the most common forms of brain cancer. It is a slow-growing tumor that develops in the meninges, the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Unlike other varieties of brain tumor, it is more likely to affect women than men. Middle-aged women are the demographic most likely to be affected.

The researchers found that a woman' risk increased along with the number of years that she had been exposed to pesticides. A number of other studies have linked working on farms or high exposure to pesticides to a variety of brain cancers.

The highest exposure tended to be among women who worked in restaurants or grocery stores. The researchers believe that these women were exposed by handling produce that still contained residue of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and other chemicals. That is the scary part. We know that farmworkers are exposed to these chemicals but now we are seeing people outside the agriculture industry being exposed to the health risks of pesticides. And if there are residues on the fruits and vegetables in the stores, just what is on your dinner table?

What can you do? Tell someone about it. Call your local grocer and ask what they are doing to reduce pesticide use in their fruits and vegetables. Call your legislators, tell them we need safe alternatives to deadly pesticides. Call your friends and family and ask them to do the same. The more people that know about this issue, the more our voice will be heard.

> James Brown is an Administrative Assistant here at FSH. He keeps an eye on pesticide issues and often attends meetings with other organizations around the state.

Meet Millie!

2008-08-15T11:30:53-04:00

Amelia Cardenas, our free farmworker clinic coordinator and outstanding community outreach worker, stays quite busy checking on housebound residents of our community and scheduling free mammograms for our farmworker women but when received a phone call last week from one of the women in our community, she was concerned. Carmen Diaz was not feeling well and asked Millie to come by.

Clinic Coordinator Amelia Cardenas checks on Carmen Diaz now that she is home from the hospital.Millie checked Carmen’s vital signs and when she was not able to get a good blood pressure on her, she called an ambulance. Doctors ran several tests on Carmen and eventually moved her to a hospital in Tampa where they discovered that she had a blood clot. Doctors were able to dissolve the clot. Because of the great work of our local hospitals and Millie’s quick thinking, Carmen is now home with her husband and two children. Sadly, many people in our community are often hesitant to seek out medical care as most are under insured but through or free farmworker clinic we are able to care for the farmworkers and their families. Just last year, Dr. Reed, our clinic physician, discovered a case of Hansen ’s disease (leprosy) in one of our farmworker men. She and Millie took the man to Tampa General Hospital. Doctors there had never seen this illness as it is rare in modern America. Later this month, doctors from Salem Lutheran Church in Orlando will be coming to give back-to-school physicals to our farmworker children.

Our Undocumented America – A History Lesson

2008-07-04T14:40:00-04:00

Why Do They Come?
The reasons that people enter the U.S without papers are varied and complex; but in all cases like all immigrants before them, it is about the belief that a better life can be had by going to the United States for work. First and foremost the majority who enter the U.S. without papers would prefer to have papers, if they could get them. But U.S. immigration quotas severely limit the access of Mexicans and other Latin American citizens.
Mexicans drawn to border towns to work in the maquiladoras under NAFTA suffered from the impact of US corporations relocating their factories from Mexico to China, Indonesia and other third world countries for even cheaper labor and little or no labor and environmental laws. NAFTA has not helped the Mexican economy keep pace with the demand for jobs. In fact NAFTA opened the door for American grown corn to glut the Mexican market, driving many Mexican farmers off their farms. More than a third of Mexico’s farm jobs have disappeared. After 14 years of "free trade" under NAFTA, real wages in Mexico's manufacturing sector are lower than before the agreement.
In the last two decades Mexican purchasing power has been decimated. The Mexican government ended subsidies on the prices of basic necessities, including gasoline, bus fares, tortillas and milk. Estimates place at least 40 million people living in poverty, with 25 million in extreme poverty.
Why Do They Stay?
Before the increase in the Border Patrol’s manpower along with surveillance cameras, towers, planes, vehicles, weapons, etc. the undocumented moved back and forth fairly easily across the border. And most did not intend to stay, wanting to work and earn enough for a business, equipment, a house or farm and then return to their families in their home villages or cities.
The radically increased dangers and difficulties of crossing have had an unexpected consequence in actually increasing the numbers of those staying. The exorbitantly high smuggler fees has raised the need to stay longer to pay off those fees and then earn the goal amount before returning home. However, these longer stays also translate into an increased likely hood that they will settle permanently in the U.S. Those who are single are likely to marry and have children further complicating their immigration status and/or their desire to leave. There are a great many “mixed” families in the U.S. where parts of the family are citizens or legal residents and the rest are undocumented. For those who have wives, children, husbands or other close family members not in the U.S., the inability to travel easily back and forth and their strong familial ties dictate the reunification of the family, contributing to the growing numbers of the undocumented entering the U.S.
Nativism in America – History Hurts
Nativism - A sociopolitical policy, especially in the United States in the 19th century, favoring the interests of established inhabitants over those of immigrants. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 27 May. 2008.
Cycles of nativism have been around since the beginning of this country’s history. This so-called patriotic sentiment has provided excuses for American citizens to terrorize those who were deemed to not be “real Americans”; terror that has included anti-immigrant laws, forced deportations, imprisonment, theft and destruction of property, rape, lynchings, and other physical violence.

In the late 1700’s Alien and Sedition Acts were established to exclude or deport “foreigners” deemed dangerous to the incumbent political status quo or those who criticized the government. A Naturalization Act sought to limit the impact of immigrants in the electoral process by extending the waiting period for citizenship to 14 years. In its first statement on the issue of citizenship the Congress in 1790 restricted naturalization to “white persons”. The issue of race has continued to play a considerable role in immigration laws and quotas for over the past 230 years.
During the mid-1800’s a large wave of Irish and German immigrants significantly increased the number of Roman Catholics in the country. Protestants began to vilify these immigrants, calling them “Papists” and claiming that they brought crime and disease, were stealing native jobs and were overall immoral. Waves of violence by Protestant workmen led to the burning of an Ursuline Convent near Boston, numerous Irish Catholic churches were burned and riots in several cities that culminated in 30 deaths and hundreds wounded in Philadelphia in 1844. By the mid-1850’s the nativist American Party, also known as the Know Nothings, had won six governorships and controlled the legislatures of nine states. This group enacted numerous laws designed to harass and penalize immigrants, including Mexicans from the newly annexed properties that the U.S. gained in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe that included parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming as well as all of California, Nevada and Utah. The treaty’s promises of citizenship and retention of property rights regarding lands owned by Mexicans were routinely violated. The Know Nothing group was also responsible for the first literacy tests for voting that were initially designed to disenfranchise the Irish. The party collapsed in 1860 over internal disputes, primarily over slavery versus abolition.
Anti-Catholic activities continued to be a strong nativist mainstay. The American Protective Association, a secret society dedicated to eradicating “foreign despots.” targeted Catholics especially. One of its campaigns sought to eliminate German language instruction in the mid-west as a way to harass parochial schools. However in 1889, when Illinois and Wisconsin adopted such laws, immigrant voters responded by turning the incumbent Republicans out of office. The second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 had a distinct nativist flavor and Catholics along with immigrants, blacks and Jews were vigorously targeted.

Chinese exclusion was also a campaign for nativists in the west claiming that the Chinese were inferior and taking away white men’s jobs. The Chinese became targets of violence and legalized discrimination. In California Denis Kearney, himself an Irish immigrant, began the Workingmen’s Party on a platform of class warfare and decrees that all “Chinese must go!” He went so far as to threaten to burn down San Francisco’s city hall and to hang the Prosecuting Attorney if the Central Pacific Railroad did not discharge its Chinese employees. Anti-Chinese hysteria swept the state and violent mobs attacked Chinese businesses and homes. Mobs surrounded companies threatening to burn them down if they did not fire their Chinese employees. Under heavy pressure from California and other Western states, Congress passed the nation’s first restrictive immigration policy, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
The 1800’s also saw laws that made it impossible for Mexican, Chinese and other “foreigners” from participating in the California Gold Rush. Blacks were banned from most mining areas, for fear that slave owners would have an unfair advantage. It is estimated that over 4,500 American Indians died violent deaths at the hands of miners and their “militias”. Thousands more died from disease and starvation.
New anti-immigration legislation in 1914 ended immigration from Japan.
Discriminatory state laws targeted those of Japanese ancestry. California passed two Alien Land laws in 1913 and 1920 that prohibited “aliens ineligible to citizenship” from owning land. Immigration laws banned citizenship for Japanese immigrants until 1952. Discrimination in the workplace, housing and education were also common experiences for the Japanese and other Asian-Pacific Islanders.
An Americanization campaign targeting immigrants began in earnest in the early 1900’s. A 42-page federally commissioned study determined that the “new immigrants” comprised of Italians, Greeks, Poles, Hungarians, and Russians were less skilled and educated, more clannish, slower to learn English and less desirable for citizenship than the “old immigrants”, the Irish, English, Scandinavians, and Germans. The Federal Bureau of Education and the Federal Bureau of Naturalization joined forces and aided private Americanization groups who actively promoted the change of the new immigrant’s cultural traits, civic values, and most importantly their language.
Labor struggles after World War I were often led by foreign-born activists. In an effort to fuel his presidential ambitions, then United States Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer engaged in an anti-communist campaign, claiming that that there was a communist plot to overthrow the country. With the help of J. Edgar Hoover, then chief of the Justice Department's Radical (later General Intelligence) Division, the Palmer Raids (1919-1920) were implemented. Despite there being no concrete evidence over 10,000 suspected radical leftists, many of them members of the Industrial Workers of the World, were rounded up. More than 500 people were summarily deported. The American Civil Liberties Union and several prominent attorneys of the time documented rampant abuses of due process, illegal search and seizure, indiscriminate arrests, use of agents provocateurs, wiretaps and torture.

In the 1800s, unlike today, the Irish, Italian, and Polish were not considered "White." Racialism moved from ethnic pride and a homogenous national character in the late 1700s to aggressive manifest destiny and a pseudoscientific theory of supremacy that included eugenics. Scientific racism was a popular concept that was not only embraced by much of the public, it was also taught in science and biology courses in universities. This concept went so far as to establish the legally forced sterilization of “undesirables”, mostly minorities. Many principles of the American eugenics movement were included in Adolf Hitler’s plans for racial purity. The hysteria of the Palmer Raids reaffirmed the Anglo-Saxon stance that they were genetically superior and that Eastern and Southern Europeans could not be assimilated. With Anglo-Saxons taking credit for all advancements achieved in Western civilization they put forward the argument that letting in the “lower races” would pollute the nation’s gene pool and destroy the country’s democratic institutions. Congress reflected this belief with the enactment of the national origins quota system in 1924.
The Depression-fueled panic of the 1930’s painted targets on the backs of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans throughout the country. State governments passed legislation prohibiting the employment of aliens on work projects financed by government funds. Many private companies and industries also adopted an anti-Mexican policy in their hiring practices. The Depression-induced hysteria led to Mexicans being fired from their jobs, denied other work and eventually targeted by U.S. and state governments and local community groups to remove them from the country. A need to eliminate Mexicans from relief rolls was another reason cited for the repatriation movement, despite the fact that Mexicans made up less than ten percent of those on relief. Civic groups such as Los Angeles’ Citizens Committee for Coordination for Unemployment Relief advocated and assisted in the repatriation effort, declaring that Mexican held jobs were needed for their own (white) needy citizens, despite the fact that many employed Mexicans were legal residents or citizens. Thousands of Mexican families lost the homes and property that they owned and in many cases all of their possessions.
Outright lies, threats and physical coercion dominated the attempt to remove Mexicans from the country. In the face of the unrelenting harassment, thousands voluntarily returned to Mexico in despair because they could not find work. Many left voluntarily after being given false promises that they could freely return. Raids in several states with significant Mexican populations swept up citizen and non-citizen Mexicans alike. Thousands, regardless of their immigration status, were forcibly removed. They were arrested and without any due process put on trains, buses, private cars; whatever transportation could be found to send them to Mexico. Local police assisted immigration authorities, conducting raids to catch Mexicans in places known to be gathering places, including churches. Families were ripped apart and for many it would be years before they were reunited.
While other aliens were targeted for repatriation, the Mexican community suffered the most due to their distinct physical appearance and Mexico’s proximity to the U.S. More than 1 million Mexicans were repatriated to Mexico during this time, over 400,000 from California alone. Conservative estimates are that as many as 60% of those deported were legal U.S. residents or U.S. citizens. Mexico was completely unprepared for the mass influx of people, and the human suffering was extensive.

In the spring of 1942, between 110,000-120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated to concentration camps in Arizona, California, Wyoming, Arkansas, and Utah. Despite the fact that the U.S. was also at war with Germany and Italy, only those of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated as a defensive move to secure the country. While the bombing of Pearl Harbor and a historical enmity toward those of Japanese ancestry living in America contributed to this incarceration; the specter of greed also looms large in the equation. The events in California where the largest numbers of Japanese lived depict a calculated avarice hidden by mass hysteria and patriotism. Many of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in California had family farms. Their agricultural expertise resulted in 35% of California's total crop production. There were over 6,000 small farms occupying approximately 250,000 acres of rich, fertile crop land. In a wave of patriotic disguised maneuvers, the California Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture Committee of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, several banks and white farmer organizations campaigned heavily for the removal of the Japanese. The California Evacuated Farms Association of the U.S. Farm Security Administration helped white farmers acquire the property of Japanese-American competitors. Other Japanese owned real estate and businesses were also targeted for “acquisition”. The vast majority of the families incarcerated were financially devastated upon their release. After the war Congress deemed that those incarcerated could ask for compensation from the government. But, if they could not produce any of the records demanded by the government they would incur a $10,000 fine and five years in prison. Not surprisingly, few applied for compensation. For those who did apply and where successful, their return was usually far below the actual loss incurred.
In the 1950’s “Operation Wetback” a McCarthy-era program, targeted union organizers and supposed "communists" under the pretenses of stopping illegal immigration. More than 1.5 million Mexicans were either jailed or deported in the operation. Again, racial profiling was the instrument; communities were raided and terrorized and once again hundreds of thousands of legal residents and U.S. citizens were rounded up with the undocumented and deported.
In the 1980’s a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment brought forth an “English Only” movement that targeted government and the private sector. In 1986 the Immigration Reform and Control Act sought to address the issue of undocumented immigrants. The law made it illegal to hire or recruit undocumented workers and employers were to determine the status of their employee’s immigration status. The Act also provided an amnesty for undocumented people who had lived continuously in the U.S. prior to 1982. In the 90’s California gained the national spotlight with its nativist Proposition 187 that would have forced all public agencies to become immigration officers of sorts by requiring them to determine immigration status, deny services to those suspected or confirmed of being undocumented and report them to immigration authorities. The initiative was eventually thrown out by the courts. In 1996 a persistent recession in the U.S. led to calls for new restrictions on immigration. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was passed, toughening border enforcement, closing opportunities for undocumented immigrants to adjust their status, and making it difficult to gain asylum. The law also expanded the grounds for deportation. It stripped immigrants of many due process rights, and their access to the courts. New income requirements were established for sponsors of legal immigrants. In the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, Congress made citizenship a condition of eligibility for public benefits for most immigrants. In 1997 a new Congress mitigated some of the overly harsh restrictions passed by the previous Congress. Some public benefits were restored to legal immigrants.
The 1996 immigrations laws that called for tighter border controls coupled with increased security since 9/11 has contributed to over 1000 deaths of undocumented immigrants trying to traverse the harsh and often dangerous terrains of the mountains and desert between the United States and Mexico. In 2007 alone over 200 people; men, women and children, died while trying to cross the border.

Despite the fact that none of the 9/11 terrorists entered through the Mexican border, in fact they all entered via legal visas, the ensuing frenzy after the attacks generated a laser beam of suspicion on the Mexican border. While Arabs and Muslims were now all persons of suspicion, other dark skinned people, especially Latinos, became targets of a national spirit of distrust. The events of 9/11 coupled with a long standing historical opposition to Mexicans has fueled the nation’s paranoia about its national security and its southern border. The nativist movement was quick to embrace the actions of the 9/11 terrorists as a reason to seal off the U.S./ Mexican border.
In 2003 parts of the U.S. Customs Service, the entire Border Patrol, the Federal Protective Service, Federal Air Marshals and the investigative arms of Customs and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) were combined together under Homeland Security and renamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE special agents have the broadest investigative powers of any law enforcement entity in the U.S. ICE is expected to cost the nation about $8.8 billion dollars in 2008.
There are currently 1,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents at the northern border while an estimated 12,000 patrol the Mexican border. Yet, a Canadian Security Intelligence Study claims that there are more international terrorist groups located in Canada (50 organizations) than anywhere else in the world.
This is a glaring disparity in the militarization of the Mexico’s 1,969 mile long southern border versus the Canadian border of 3,145 land miles and 2,380 water miles (5,525 total miles). Could it be that the increased militarization since 9/11 is based on the imagined skin color of prospective terrorists? Perhaps it is the presumed threat of Muslims residing in Mexico? Yet the Muslim population of Canada is estimated as being over 750,000 while the U.S. itself has an estimated Muslim population of between four and five million. Mexico? A little over 300,000.
Currently immigration is a hot topic in our country. Illegal immigrants are being blamed for everything from high unemployment to global warming. We at Farmworkers Self-Help urge you to get to know the issues and understand the facts. If you must hate, hate the policies and politics that have created the immigration crisis and not the people that are caught up in the crisis.

Don't just believe in miracles -- depend on them.

2008-05-20T15:54:38-04:00

Recent events in our community have made me feel the need to tell a little about the day to day life of the farmworkers in Dade City. In 1979 when I first came to this beautiful place called Pasco County with its hills that, though not like Tennessee, but in a much smaller way, reminded me of that great and gorgeous state. In fact, there is a road in Dade City that as you come around a curve and look to the right, you will see a beautiful view that I like to call ‘Little Tennessee’, and it is only about 2 miles from Tommytown.
We have seen a horrible week of death and desolation in our community. Three farmworkers have been murdered. Two in the darkness of our unlit streets while on their way to the store to wire money home to their families. Another was shot with no doubt many witnesses that are refusing to come forward. We see violence in other places and other cultures, but I have not seen the hate that has been added to these. We read the stories of these killings on the websites of our local papers and we see the comments left by other readers. “Three down, many more to go.”, “Throw the garbage out.”, and equally bad sentiments from people who feel that Tommytown’s troubles will all go away once we have killed each other off. It is almost as if the people making these comments do not see these three men as fellow human beings. How horrible it would be if someone said of the woman and her children that were recently murdered in another community that she had it coming because she exercised poor judgment in who she hung out with. That would be wrong and inexcusable and yet people are saying that the best thing that could happen to the people of Tommytown would be more murders simply because they are in this country illegally, or that they speak another language. Where are we as compassionate, caring Americans? We must all take responsibility and seek out the answers. Do not blame the problems facing Tommytown on race; blame it on economics and poor distribution of wealth. Tommytown was economically depressed before the farmworkers came. The white families of Dade City have said that the Mexicans are ruining the beauty of Dade City. When we worked to give hope to our community by changing the name of Lock Street to Calle de Milagros (Street of Miracles) we over heard people in the local grocery store commenting that Lock Street was the more fitting name because the Mexicans needed to be kept locked down. The blacks in our community claim no responsibility here as they feel that they are the minority and have no voice here. I am saying that we are all our brothers’ keepers. We can contribute hope or despair and by choosing to look the other way and do nothing is choosing despair!
What have we done? Since 1979, FSH has built an organization that has almost single handedly brought hope to this community. We have built a learning center, a free clinic for the farmworkers, a 4 acre park and a children’s church that now serves entire families. Not bad for a bunch of poor Mexicans, and with the help of our white and black brothers & sisters we have built a social services office that works to address many of the issues that affect farmworkers on a local, state, and national level. Before there were any services available for farmworkers, we were it and on many fronts, we still are, at no expense to the government. Through foundation grants, individual donations, and gifts from churches that care about what we do, we have brought money into this county, possibly over a million dollars in the 30 years that we have been working. Does the public see our staff in grandiose offices? No!, we have poured our lives into making Tommytown a better place to live and Lock Street is a street of miracles, God is not finished with us yet! We must remember that out of difficulties grow miracles. We must provide the work of our hands and hearts. And then I have to ask, where are the churches? There are six churches on our Street of Miracles including our own Resurrection House Mission. All of the churches in Tommytown have strong membership so I have to ask, why are we not dealing with our problems? We must be responsible and face the issues that are killing our community. The folks that shot those young men belong to somebody! Get it?
I did not intend to write a book here but this is what happens when you wake up at 2am with so much on your heart. I had planned to start work on our newsletter but our great strides and accomplishments seem so small in retrospect to what has happened here. I struggle to think of how we can fix the problems here, and they are our problems again, not the sheriff, not the County Commissioners, and not our neighbors. This is ours and we need to face it and take ownership and work toward a solution.
Wednesday evening we will once again call our community together to pray for our fallen brothers and then have a meeting to see what else we can do as a community. We plan to invite the sheriff and the County Commissioners as well as the Dade City Commissioners. If they do not come we will keep holding meetings until they do.
Good things happen in Tommytown too. Know that even while there is gang activity here, there is also God activity. Though there are youth here that are bent on destruction, there are also young people in our community that are doing something positive. They have gone through the community and replaced the gang tags that show up on buildings with messages of hope. Our Teen Dream Team youth have traveled to Tallahassee to learn how government works and they have met with legislators to discuss the problems that their farmworker parents face. Some of the youth have created a ‘Fish to Feed’ project that combines aquaculture and fish farming with traditional gardening. They have met with youth from other communities and cultures in an effort to understand each other better and they found that for all their differences they were not really that different.
We can not stop what we are doing! We must spread the great commission that Jesus gave us. Jesus said in John 14:12, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” The word also says that by our fruits we shall be known. Where are those fruits? Inside church walls, or out where everyone can see? We must have faith and we must shine for all to see. I challenge all of us, churches and individuals, if we are truly Tommytown residents, then let us rise up and take responsibility for the well being of this community for if we can not all come together simply as children of God, then we have already lost the battle. We can overcome the evil that waits in the darkness but only if we work together. Jesus said that we must seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. I pray that we can come together as one and forget the names of our churches, forget what denominations we come from and remember that our one true shepherd is Jesus and through Him, all things are possible.