Civil Rights Commission Listens to Migrant Issues

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission held a public forum on August 22, 2005, to listen to public testimony about the obstacles the migrant farm workers face in the state of Michigan.

Migrants to state: We're losing ground

Kalamazoo Gazette

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

bwalters@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8563

A hard life is growing harder for families who pick and pack Michigan's crops, from asparagus to apples, the state Civil Rights Commission was told Monday at a public forum in Kalamazoo.

Among the complaints put by more than 100 migrants and advocates before commissioners at Western Michigan University's Multicultural Center:

Children are being left strapped in car seats in hot vehicles or strapped to parents' backs in fields because many outreach programs, including monitored day care, have been cut or eliminated. ``We have no cars'' to visit the camps, said Martha Cortes, director of the Office of Migrant Affairs for the Michigan Department of Human Services.

``Glaringly substandard housing conditions'' are becoming more common in migrant camps. There are now only five state Department of Agriculture health and sanitation inspectors, none of whom is bilingual, to inspect about 4,000 units for more than 22,000 people statewide. Two years ago there were eight licensed inspectors. In 1988 there were 17.

Migrants wait for weeks or months for enforcement of state and federal workplace-safety rules. Complaints in June by a church group that workers were without water in one Southeast Michigan field got no response until August, when the field's owner was asked to investigate it himself, according to Tom Thornburg, co-managing attorney for Farmworker Legal Services in Kalamazoo.

Migrants and permanent residents who are Hispanic often lack access to education, job training and other services because they are not bilingual. One Western Michigan University student from a Hispanic farm family told about her father, whose English is limited and who lost his job when the mushroom-growing plant where he worked near Fennville closed. ``He's not young anymore,'' she said. Unable to learn English, he can't take advantage of training programs he qualifies for under the Trade Act/NAFTA, she said.

``We're losing all the ground we worked so hard for 25 years,'' said Sister Rosemary Tierney, who has worked through the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo in migrant services for a quarter-century.

Commission members made it clear they were visiting Kalamazoo to listen, not give responses right away. The few responses they did have, however, showed sympathy for the migrant cause.

``This does remind me a lot of what used to happen in the South,'' commission Chairman Valerie Simmons remarked after hearing that many companies were requiring pre-employment tests. Those tests often discriminate against migrants and immigrants, advocates said.

``Do you really need a 10th-grade education to sort cherries?'' one advocate asked.

A ``growing radical anti-immigrant movement'' threatens the Michigan farm movement, said Carlos Alfredo, of Gobles, president of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Hartford, where many migrant and farm families attend.

Vigilantes formed border groups in Arizona earlier this year, and ``I fear we soon will have such groups in Michigan,'' he said.

There are no vigilantes yet, but the racism of asking Hispanic drivers for ``papers'' rather than a license is an example of the kind of false assumptions that can lead to widespread problems, he said.

The hardships for Michigan farm workers begin even before they leave Mexico or Texas for the trip north, according to Eusebio Suasto, who spoke through a translator.

Contractors, or ``coyotes,'' bring immigrants illegally over the border and then keep half of the workers' paychecks, said Suasto, also of Immaculate Conception parish.

``How does the contractor have the right to cash the check?'' he asked.

Kalamazoo Vice Mayor Hannah McKinney read a proclamation declaring Monday ``farm Worker Appreciation Day.''

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