On June 24 at 10 a.m. in Springfield, immigrant rights activists will rally at the office of congressman Richard Neal. The event is being organized by the Massachusetts chapter of a group called Not One More Deportation, which is an affiliate of www.ndlon.org. For more information contact Bliss Requa-Trautz at bliss.requatrautz@gmail.com or by phone at (774) 722-1511.

The current (June) issue of Labor Notes magazine (p. 3 in the paper edition, and online at www.labornotes.org/2013/05/new-path-citizenship-looks-more-obstacle-course) reports that, "The immigration bill’s guestworker provisions were hashed out in contentious negotiations between the AFL-CIO (for fewer visas and higher wages) and the Chamber of Commerce (for the opposite). It appears the Chamber won more than many unions are letting on... H-2A wages currently have to meet or exceed a figure (set for each state) that is supposedly high enough to keep employers from replacing U.S. workers with guestworkers. The national average is now $10.80, but the bill sets new national minimums to begin in 2016, starting at $9.64 for crop workers." The bill is now being debated in congress. Contact info for members of congress is at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov.

Photos of farm workers from Jamaica who work in the Valley are at:

www.valleypost.org/2011/11/08/photos-farm-workers

Among the local farms that employ workers from Jamaica are Dutton Farm in Newfane, Vermont, near Brattleboro, and Atlas Farm in Deerfield, Massachusetts, near Greenfield. The workers live in Jamaica in winter.

More information is at www.FarmWorkerJustice.org.

On July 5, the government plans to deport a Mexican farm worker from Vermont, unless activists can stop the deportation. The activists, who have already persuaded Vermont’s entire congressional delegation to write letters to the Obama administration opposing the deportation, have a web site at www.MigrantJustice.net.