Cesar Chavez would roll over in his grave. Chavez founded the United Farm Workers and spent his life organizing migrant labor to improve their horrendous working conditions and their lousy wages. He was also an adamant foe of illegal migration. Illegals were the scabs, hired by the employers to break UFW strikes and keep the wages low. Chavez wanted illegals deported. (See: “Promise Unfulfilled: Unions, Immigration, and Farm Workers,” by Philip Martin)

After Chavez’s death, the UFW morphed itself from grass-roots labor activism into a corporate- funded ethnic lobby. UFW leadership now supports all legislation that rewards and encourages illegal migrants and open borders.

On the anniversary of Chavez’s death, the UFW recently honored Gov. Baldacci as a “friend of migrant workers” for signing his executive order which bans state officials from asking immigrants to prove their legal status. The Baldacci order makes it much easier for illegal migrants to live and work in our state; it makes Maine the first official state sanctuary for illegals, and it undermines everything Chavez worked for.

Jonette Christian

Mainers for Sensible Immigration Policy

Holden