[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 268 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 268
Expressing support for the designation of Cesar Chavez's birthday,
March 31, 2019, as National Border Control Day.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 28, 2019
Mr. Gosar submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Labor
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing support for the designation of Cesar Chavez's birthday,
March 31, 2019, as National Border Control Day.
Whereas Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona;
Whereas, in 1962, Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, which
later became the United Farm Workers, to improve the wages and working
conditions for American farmworkers;
Whereas Chavez's union drew on the imagery of civil rights to use nonviolence
and mass mobilization to improve the conditions of persecuted and
impoverished American workers;
Whereas Cesar Chavez believed that preventing illegal immigration was an
essential prerequisite to improving the circumstances of American
farmworkers;
Whereas, in 1969, Chavez led a march to the Mexican border to protest illegal
immigration, joined by Senator Walter Mondale and Martin Luther King's
successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Ralph
Abernathy;
Whereas Chavez noted that it is ``almost impossible to start some effective
program to get these people their jobs back from the braceros'' once
employers replace them;
Whereas, in the 1970s, Chavez combined a campaign of identifying and reporting
illegal workers with a campaign to boycott nonunionized farms in order
to protect the labor of the unionized American worker;
Whereas Chavez recognized that flooding the labor market with people from abroad
undermines the unionized American worker;
Whereas, in 1979, at the National Press Club, Chavez emphatically supported
enforcement of immigration laws, stating that ``people are being hurt
and being destroyed, and with the complicity and with the help, of the
Federal Government''; and
Whereas President Clinton recognized Chavez's work saying, ``We can be proud of
his enormous accomplishments and in the dignity and comfort he brought
to the lives of so many of our country's least powerful and most
dispossessed workers'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) supports the designation of National Border Control
Day;
(2) expresses strong support for Cesar Chavez's fight to
defend the interests of the American farmworkers, and for his
recognition that nonviolent action could protect these workers
against the business interests which would replace them with
illegal foreign labor; and
(3) encourages recognition and celebration of National
Border Control Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
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