NEWSIMMIGRANT WOMEN

On March 21, 2011, Carlos La Madrid, 19 years old and unarmed, was running from U.S. Border Patrol officers and attempting to cross a ladder into Mexico from Arizona. He was shot in the back four times and passed away.

A sudden flurry of media attention on operations between Border Patrol agents and apprehended subjects followed in the days following the tragic incident and seemed to dissipate almost as quickly. But for the ministry group of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, No More Deaths, documenting abuse on the border since 2006 has been an ongoing, almost daily, and often heart-wrenching fact -- and a new petition by the group on Change.org calls on Border Patrol to address this reality with concrete actions.

The group's new comprehensive report "Culture of Cruelty," produced in collaboration with expert researches who interviewed more than 30,000 migrants who came in contact with Border Patrol, reveals that victims report many of the same patterns of abuse: denial of water and food even when migrants are dangerously dehydrated, denial of access to medical help for severe injuries, verbal abuse and threats of death, separation from family members, denial of due process, no return of personal belongings, intentional funneling of migrants to deadly regions.

If CA Gov. Jerry Brown doesn't sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act by a week from today, the bill will die. But it won't go gentle into that good night -- from the moment the bill landed on the governor's desk last Thursday, farm workers and their allies have been making quite a stir on its behalf.

An estimated 1000 farm workers marched in Sacramento on June 16th to urge Gov. Brown to sign a bill that would protect farm worker safety, chanting "Si Se Puede" ("Yes We Can"). Eighty-one-year-old Taurino Carlos spoke movingly of the harsh conditions he has endured as a farm worker over the decades to the present day -- he hopes that the next generation can enjoy better, safer conditions than he has been subjected to.

Too many farm workers have died because their employers deny them the simplest of needs -- rest, shade, water. Farm workers like 17-year-old Maria Isavel, whose touching story motivated 16,000 Change.org members to take action on her behalf. A United Farm Workers petition on Change.org is asking Gov. Brown to sign the bill, which was introduced to the State Assembly on the anniversary of Maria Isavel's untimely death, and take a stand for farm workers state wide.

Newsflash: Massachusetts State Rep. Ryan Fattman believes that rape and abuse survivors ought to be afraid to report their assault, assuming they are undocumented. No really.

We hear a lot of justifications for the flawed "Secure Communities" program, which requires local law enforcement to fingerprint both criminals and victims alike and check these prints against a federal immigration database. While it sounds innocuous enough, this causes mass insecurity by deterring undocumented immigrant victims and witnesses from going to the police to report violent crime, out of fear that they will be the ones who end up behind bars. The justification usually rests on pooh-poohing these concerns and attempting to brush them aside as illegitimate. But State Rep. Fattman is taking a new approach: "My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward."

He went on to explain to Mother Jones that his quote was taken out of context. The context? "If someone got into a car accident, it's obviously a tragic event. But if they're drunk and they crash, it's a crime. If that person was drunk and survived the accident they would be afraid to come forward. I think if someone is here illegally they should be afraid to come forward because they should be afraid to be deported." To recap: rape survivors are equivalent to drunk drivers.

Yesterday was International Domestic Workers Day, and you don't have to look very far to find hardworking domestic workers facing exploitation and in need of your support. In America, labor law excludes domestic workers from basic protections, like the right to sick days, overtime pay, or notice of termination. The nannies and nurses who take care of our children, our sick, our elderly should hold a respected position in our society -- in our families too -- but instead they're often underpaid and overworked. It's all up to the whim of the employer whether they're treated fairly.

But California domestic workers say: no more. Stephanie Hallett at Ms. Magazine's blog reports that a rally yesterday called for the passage of a state bill that could change all this for them: a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. This move has precedent in New York's decision last year to pass their own DWBOR, which came about after years of effort by organizations like like Domestic Workers United and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, who are also involved in the California push.

It's getting down to the wire to salvage some justice in the death of 17-year-old pregnant farmworker Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, who perished after being illegally denied water or rest breaks while working under the hot California sun. Within two days, District Attorney James P. Willett plans to let the girl's killers off with a bit of community service — barely a slap on the wrist for taking a young life — unless he really feels the pressure to take this offensive plea deal off the table. Fifteen thousand of you have already called for jail time to send a message that farmworkers' lives are not expendable, but we need to step it up in these last days.

Today, United Farm Workers (UFW), advocates on the ground, and Maria Isabel's mourning family and friends launched a vigil on the courthouse steps in Stockton, California, that will last until the final decision on the plea bargain is made. The UFW Facebook page is being constantly updated with photos and news from the vigil. DA Willett and those who caused her death believe that because Maria Isabel died in 2008, and the legal system has taken its time in bringing the case to trial, people have just forgotten about this outrageous death. All the emails from Change.org members and the presence of protesters on the courthouse steps should make it clear that this is not the case: that the wrongful death of a poor, young, hard-working girl does matter to many people.

In the next few days, thousands of supporters will make a final push to prevent a plea deal that would allow those responsible for the heat death of a 17-year-old farmworker to get off with community service.

The nation was shocked when 17-year-old farmworker Maria Isabel Vasquez died from heat exhaustion while she pruned grapes in a field run by California's Merced Farm Labor.

Maria succumbed after working nine hours in the heat, collapsing into her fiance Florentino Bautisa's arms. Florentino says that a farm labor contractor balked before taking Maria to the hospital, telling workers to dab her with rubbing alcohol. When she didn't wake up, the contractor sent her to a local clinic instead of the hospital, with instructions that workers tell the clinic Maria fainted while exercising. When the clinic saw Maria, they sent her to a hospital. She arrived at the hospital comatose, her body temperature reaching 108 degrees.

She died two days later. While examining Maria's body, doctors discovered she was two months pregnant.

Seventeen, happily engaged, and pregnant, Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez's life was just beginning when she collapsed under the brutal California sun. Forced to work nine hours without water or rest in the shade, her body gave up and she fell into her finance's arms. Even then, her employer, Merced Farm Labor, showed more concern for covering themselves than for her safety: the workers who took her to a local clinic were told to claim that Maria had passed out while exercising. Though clinic staff rushed her to the hospital upon seeing the dangerous state she was in, it was too late: she died of a 108 degree fever. The adequate punishment for those who caused her death? Forty hours community service, apparently.

That's the sentence San Joaquin County District Attorney James P. Willett is considering in a plea deal for Merced owner Maria De Los Angeles Colunga, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Safety coordinator Elias Armenta, also charged, faces 400 hours community service and a $1000 fine — still nothing in comparison to snatching away a young life. But Maria's family and other supporters aren't willing to let the California justice system act like her life didn't matter. At a press conference organized by United Farm Workers (UFW), where Maria's fiance and the uncle she lived with appeared, they made it clear that nothing short of jail time will provide justice in the beloved teenage girl's case and send a message that the lives of farm workers are not disposable.

If a boss ignores health and safety regulations and a farmworker dies — even a teenager — he should be given probation and a few days' community service. At least that's what San Joaquin District Attorney James Willett believes.

The nation was shocked when 17-year-old farmworker Maria Isabel Vasquez died from heat exhaustion while she pruned grapes in a field run by California's Merced Farm Labor.

Maria succumbed to the heat after working nine hours, collapsing into her fiance Florentino Bautisa's arms. Florentino says that a farm labor contractor balked before taking Maria to the hospital, telling workers to dab her with rubbing alcohol. When she didn't wake up, the contractor sent her to a local clinic instead of the hospital, with instructions that workers tell the clinic Maria fainted while exercising. When the clinic saw Maria, they sent her to a hospital. She arrived at the hospital comatose, her body temperature reaching 108 degrees.

She died two days later. While examining Maria's body, doctors discovered she was two months pregnant.

In 1991, the Chinese government forced Mei Fen Wong to get an intrauterine device (IUD) implanted in her uterus as a state-mandated form of population control. Wong found the device "unbearably" painful and, in accordance with what would seem like her individual rights, had it removed by a private doctor. But soon after, in a mandatory state-ordered pelvic exam, the government doctor found that Mei Fen Wong's IUD was missing.

Mei Fen Wong was detained for three days until she gave up her personal rights and allowed the reinsertion of an IUD. Traumatized and scared for her health, she fled to the United States and applied for asylum in 2000. Her claim was rejected by an immigration judge and then again, in 2008, by the Board of Immigration Appeals. But now, with wisdom somehow lacking in the BIA, the 2nd Court of Appeals has found this case compelling enough to have another look.

Ninety-five degree heat beat down on 17 year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez as she pruned grapes in a field run by California's Merced Farm Labor. The nearest water cooler was a ten minute walk away, but it didn't matter. Workers reported that the foreman wasn't letting them stop to take a break anyways.

After nine hours Maria succumbed to the heat, collapsing into her fiance Florentino Bautisa's arms. Florencio says that a farm labor contractor balked before taking Maria to the hospital, telling workers to dab her with rubbing alcohol. When she didn't wake up, the contractor sent her to a local clinic instead of the hospital, with instructions that workers tell the clinic Maria fainted while excercising. When the clinic saw Maria, they sent her to a hospital. She arrived at the hospital comatose, her body temperature reaching 108 degrees.

She died two days later. While examining Maria's body, doctors discovered she was two months pregnant.

Tell James Willett that those responsible for Maria's death deserve jail time.