Latino constituent education campaign begins as House Republicans consider timing for votes on E-Verify, guest worker proposals

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As House Republican leaders weigh the timing for a floor vote on a flawed mandatory E-Verify bill, SEIU and the America's Voice Education Fund launched a five-figure Spanish-language media campaign to educate constituents about the pending legislation.

The ads will runin heavy rotation this week on top Spanish language radio stations and onFriday in the newspaper La Opinión, with the message that "once again,Republicans are pushing a terrible immigration plan that will hurt Latinoworkers in California and around the country." The campaign highlights thebill's hypocrisy for claiming that E-verify will weed out undocumented workersto create jobs for Americans, when errors in the database will actually lead tothe firing of hundreds of thousands of authorized workers. Taking the message to Spanish-language mediais particularly important, because naturalized citizens are at least 30 timesmore likely to be falselyidentified as "unauthorized" than native-born citizens.

The Republicans' E-Verifyplan is facing massive resistance from labor unions, small business owners, conservatives, and farmers worried about the longevity of their industry, whicheveryone knows is heavily reliable upon undocumented workers. To appeasegrowers, House Republicans are also considering a massive newguest worker program. The plan would allow agriculture interests to replace existing, experiencedfarmworkers with hundreds of thousands of new temporary workers with no rightsand no protections. The radio ads feature an Oxnard farmworker, anAmerican citizen, who objects to the Republicans' E-Verify and guest workerplans because they treat farm workers like "disposable machines" rather thanhuman beings.

The ads will run in districtsrepresented by key advocates for mandatory E-Verify: House ImmigrationSubcommittee Chairman Elton Gallegly (R-Camarillo) and House JudiciaryCommittee Member Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Sacramento). Gallegly is a cosponsorof the E-Verify measure and Lungren voted in favor of it last week when it passed the House JudiciaryCommittee. Lungren isalso one of the leading advocates for adding an agriculture guest workerprogram to the E-Verify bill.

According to Frank Sharry,Executive Director of America's Voice Education Fund: "Reps. Gallegly andLungren have sizable Latino populations in their districts, and theirconstituents deserve to know the truth. The bill would endanger the jobsof millions of Latinos—including U.S. citizens wrongly flagged by thegovernment's database—and import hundreds of thousands of new guestworkers to replace them. It would push more jobs and workers into theunderground economy, grow the deficit, and expand red tape and costs for smallbusinesses. That's no solution to our broken immigration system. We're launching this campaign to make sure California Latinos know what their'leaders' in Washington are up to."

In addition to running inGallegly and Lungren's districts, the ads will also run in Los Angeles,criticizing California Republicans in general for their role pushing amandatory E-verify and guest worker package in Congress.

Eliseo Medina, SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer, said,"Whenit comes to immigration policy, no tactic is too extreme for Republicans. Intheir desperate attempt to carry out a right-wing, strident, nativist agenda,they are happy to cripple our economy and jeopardize the future of keyindustries like agriculture that rely on immigrant workers. We cannot allowthis sort of extreme behavior to go unchecked. Constituents need to understandjust how entrenched Republicans are in this anti-immigrant rhetoric and deservethe opportunity to hold them accountable for their reckless behavior."

Mike Garcia, SEIU-USWWPresident, explained, "Let there be nomistake: Latino constituents understand the devastation of this policy.Janitors, security guards, farm workers and others have all seen it in theircommunities and they refuse to standby and allow Republicans to wreak furtherhavoc," explained Mike Garcia, President of SEIU-USWW. "Republicans talkendlessly about job creation and never take action. We are taking on thispublic education campaign because constituents and workers need to know exactlywhat their elected leaders are doing in Washington, because it certainly is notcreating jobs."

Arturo Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers of America, commented, "Thecurrent labor force is comprised of professional farm workers who possessessential skills needed to maintain the viability of the agricultural industry.We know that it will be impossible to replace the million unauthorized workerswho are currently working in agriculture with US workers who have no experiencein agriculture. The UFW strongly opposes a new guest worker program with littlegovernment oversight because a new guestworker program creates two new problems- even more people looking for work and less protections for farm workers. TheUFW has fought for decades to improve the working conditions of farm workersand the proposed guest worker program would come and destroy all that work."

Listen to the new ad buy:
http://americasvoiceonline.org/page/-/americasvoice/audio/EVER_GE.mp3

Text of the radio ad (English and Spanish):

Announcer:Once again, Republican Congressmen are promoting a terrible immigration plan that would harm Latino workers in California and across the country.

The plan forces companies to use the federal E-Verify system to verify that their workers have authorization (to work). But the program uses a database full of errors that may leave thousands of Latinos out of work.

To make matters worse, they want to bring in half a million new temporary agricultural workers without rights or protections.

Farmworker:My name is Reynaldo Arevalo. I'm a citizen of this country and I've worked as a mushroom picker for more than 20 years. This plan treats me and my co-workers like we're disposable. We are human beings and we should be treated as such.

Announcer:Tell these Republican Congressmen that their plan will NOT resolve unemployment nor fix the problems with our immigration system.

Text "ENOUGH" to the number "69866". Text messaging charges may apply.

A message from SEIU and America's Voice Education Fund

Announcer:

Otra vez, congresistas republicanos promueven un terrible plan migratorio que lastimar a trabajadores latinos en California y en todo el pas.

El plan obliga a las empresas a usar el sistema federal E-Verify para verificar que sus trabajadores est̩n autorizados. Pero el programa usa bancos de datos llenos de errores que pueden dejar sin trabajo a miles de latinos.

Para empeorar las cosas, quieren traer a medio milln de nuevos trabajadores agrcolas temporales sin derechos ni protecciones.

Farmworker:

Mi nombre es Reynaldo Arevalo. Soy ciudadano de este pas, y he trabajado en la cosecha de los hongos por ms de 20 a̱os. Este plan me trata a m y a mis compa̱eros como si fu̩ramos desechables. Somos seres humanos y queremos ser tratados como tal.

Announcer:Dgales a los congresistas republicanos que su plan NO resolver el desempleo ni arreglar los problemas del sistema migratorio.

Enve el texto "BASTA" al n̼mero "69866". Pueden aplicar cargos por mensajes de texto.

Un mensaje de SEIU y el Fondo Educativo de America's Voice.

For more information on the E-Verify and guest worker plan, see:

• America's Voice Report on the Impacts of this Plan onCalifornia (America's Voice)
• Summary of Smith's E-Verify Bill (National Immigration Law Center)
• Summary of Pending Guest Worker Bills, Other Resources (Farmworker Justice)
• Costs of E-Verify (Center for American Progress)
• Small Business Opposition to E-Verify (quotes compiled by National Immigration Law Center)
• Labor Perspective on E-Verify (Service Employees International Union)
• Conservative Perspective on E-Verify (National Foundation for American Policy)
• Farmworker Justice Report on Abuses in the H-2A GuestWorker Program (Farmworker Justice)

"

###