Free Republic

In a special report, Donogh Diamond meets several new Irish residents, from eastern Europe, who speak openly about their living and working conditions Click link to watch program http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0418/primetime.html

Nowhere in the Inland area is the crunch to house the poor more evident than in the Coachella Valley, where 15,000 migrant workers are expected to arrive in the next few weeks for the grape and citrus harvest. Most will spend each night outside or crammed in a car or shed, said Nadia Villagran, special projects manager for the Indio-based Coachella Valley Housing Coalition. "They're working hard during the day and have to sleep at night in cardboard boxes, in a tree or in a car," she said. "It's shocking to see." Migrant-housing programs in the desert are confronting the...

Pushing back the silvery-green canopy of an olive tree, Don Stutsman examines clusters of ripening fruit and wonders whether he'll have enough hands to pick the blushing berries. He usually finishes his harvest by the end of October. But this year a number of unusual factors have collided to leave fruit hanging longer, jeopardizing his crop and highlighting the industry's dependence on illegal immigrants. A booming construction industry is offering better pay, and beefed-up patrolling along the Mexican border has made it harder for unauthorized workers to reach farms, offering a preview of what would happen if this source of...

Imperial Valley lettuce farmer Jack Vessey says it's the worst in his lifetime. Farther north in California's Central Valley, orange grower Manuel Cunha calls it the most constrained since before World War II. Coastal tomato grower Luwanna Holmstrom constantly worries about a repeat of two years ago, when she had to plow under $2.5 million in tomatoes left unpicked. California and Arizona farmers - producers of half the nation's citrus and 90 percent of its vegetables and nuts - are struggling with an acute labor shortage. The situation, worsened by crackdowns on illegal immigration since 9/11, also extends to other...

Michigan farmers say U.S. crackdown threatens labor shortage 7/28/2005, 12:18 a.m. ET The Associated Press OLD MISSION, Mich. (AP) — Farmers in northwestern Michigan's fruit belt say that fears of a federal crackdown on illegal immigrants are leaving them desperately short of labor this harvest season. Farmers, migrants and state labor department officials say federal authorities have stepped up raids on fruit farms and nearby communities. The federal government says it is not so. Josh Wunsch of Wunsch Farms on the Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay, a prime cherry-growing area north of Traverse City, says he and his...

Suffolk police yesterday arrested the owner of a rundown 900-square-foot house in Farmingville that has been home to as many as 64 Hispanic immigrants at a time, each paying $200 to $250 a month in rent. Rosalina Dias, 31, of Selden, was charged with criminal contempt and criminal nuisance for allegedly violating an October court order barring her from renting the single-family house. Although officials said it was highly unusual to arrest a landlord, they took the action because of her "outrageous and total disregard for court orders," said Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. Calls to Dias' home, business and...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox called recent U.S. measures to stem illegal immigration a step back for bilateral relations on Friday and said Mexican migrants do jobs "that not even blacks want to do." In comments likely to raise the temperature of the immigration debate, Fox defended the role of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States to a group of Texas business people meeting in Mexico. "There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States," he...

A Houstonian armed to the teeth stands atop his pickup truck in the Arizona desert. He wishes to deter illegal immigrants from Mexico, but he and his confederates will fail. Border Patrol officials said some civilian observers set off motion detectors, complicating rather than aiding the agency's mission.

PARLIER - For the past century, raisins in California's Central Valley have been harvested in exactly the same way; a monthlong frenzy of hand picking that required more workers than almost any other crop.Last season, many raisin growers turned to machines to do the work. Although they had long held out, they are now joining growers nationwide in embracing mechanization to fend off global competition.But the switch to mechanical harvesting is taking a heavy toll on the Mexican migrants who fill most of the state's lowest-paying farm jobs. With machines picking more crops, the need for field hands is falling...

(Workers from Chiapas, Mexico watching TV after a long day of labor. They refused to show their faces for the photo and requested anonymity.) Illegal day laborers are hidden in plain sight in South Florida. But authorities say there is little they can do to protect -- or deport -- them. South Florida's illegal day laborers aren't hard to find. You can see them gathering any morning at a gas station in Pompano Beach or in an empty lot a few blocks from Interstate 95. They are invisible only to the government. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency...

HIV prevalence among Mexican migrant workers in California is rising at a "significant" rate and is on the "threshold of rapid increase" in the population, according to two studies conducted by the University of California's Universitywide AIDS Research Program, the Los Angeles Times reports (Bernstein, Los Angeles Times, 11/2). Last year, government researchers from Mexico and California announced plans for a joint study to explore the spread of HIV among migrant workers and their families. The study focused on seasonal farm workers, day laborers and urban workers in Fresno and San Diego counties, as well as similar groups and their...

BEIJING (AFP) - China's migrant workers are owed a staggering 360 billion yuan (43 billion dollars) by their employers, with some still waiting to get paid for jobs they did 10 years ago, state media said. A nationwide investigation has found 124,000 construction sites where workers were toiling all day even though they were being paid late or never, the China Daily newspaper reported. The survey suggests the problem is much worse than previously thought, as a similar estimate last year had China's 120 million migrant workers being owed 100 billion yuan. Not just rogue private companies are to blame....

RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia's Department of Education received federal funding Monday to help teach migrant workers' children, whose education often is disrupted when their parents move from state to state for work.   Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok said the $241,314 grant will fund programs to improve mathematics skills for migrant children. The funding was announced at a news conference attended by more than 30 children of migrant workers originally from Mexico who are attending summer school in Colonial Beach. Hickok said that during a typical year, some students live in several states and must switch schools. Virginia's funding...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Emergency room staff would have to fingerprint or photograph any undocumented immigrant they treat and report the patient to the Department of Homeland Security to begin deportation procedures if a bill introduced here Wednesday is enacted. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, introduced House Resolution 3722, also referreds to as the Undocumented Alien Emergency Medical Assistance Amendments of 2004. The bill seeks to amend section 1011 of the recently enacted Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. Section 1011 provides $1 billion to reimburse hospitals for the costs of treating undocumented immigrants. The bill would impose...

There is at least one positive development that has come as a result of President Bush's recent "guest worker" proposal: It has sparked a vigorous and long overdue national debate on immigration policy. Both sides of the issue agree that our current policy is not working. That, however, is where agreement ends. One basic flaw with the president's proposal is its offer of amnesty to millions of people who have violated federal law. The president says his proposal is not an amnesty for illegal aliens already in the country, but he can say this only by redefining amnesty as a...

<p>Mexican senators said Monday they would send a delegation to the United States to lobby for migration reforms, in response to U.S. President George W. Bush's proposed temporary worker program.</p> <p>Mexican President Vicente Fox has welcomed the proposal by Bush to extend temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants in the United States as well as would-be migrants who have jobs waiting for them. Under the proposal, workers would receive three-year work permits.</p>

Cuellar files for office Times staff reports Former state representative Henry Cuellar announced his filing for candidacy for the new 28th Congressional District, Monday. In a press release issued by his campaign headquarters, Cuellar announced his decision to run for the Democratic nomination in the March 9 primaries. He filed with state Democratic Party headquarters in Austin Sunday afternoon. The newly created congressional district is made up of Atascosa, Frio, Guadalupe, La Salle, McMullen, Wilson, Zapata and part of Bexar, Comal and Webb counties. "As a state representative for 14 years, I fought to bring improved funding for education, healthcare...

<p>Mexican migrants who tend fields around Fresno and work as day laborers in San Diego are the focus of a sweeping study that will investigate what public health officials fear is a rising incidence of HIV infection among one of California's poorest and most isolated communities.</p>

Home - Yahoo! - Help - My Yahoo! http://asia.news.yahoo.com/030128/afp/030128032546int.htmlTuesday January 28, 11:25 AM China's unpaid migrant workers vent anger as New Year approaches Photo: AFP BEIJING (AFP) - Pressure to return home bearing gifts has seen rare protests by migrant workers in the run-up to the Chinese New Year as labourers demand unpaid wages.The Spring Festival is traditionally a time spent with families and with the country's migrant workforce rapidly growing there are more people on the move this year than ever before.And as China's largest annual movement of people reaches feverish proportions, the desire to return home with...

"AAYYYY! TENGO FRIO!" Orlando Flores nods to me with a toothy grin as he turns from the door, his words hanging as visible puffs of clouds in the pale darkness. It is 6:45 in the morning. I feel the gray Caribou air slip easily beneath my layers and between my bones, imagining what this northern Maine air feels like to these men, against their Honduran skin.The eight men in Jose's house grab the food they have made for lunch, a rice and beef concoction, and slide across the cold vinyl of the Evergreen Forestry Co.'s white Suburban. Luckily, Elvin Flores,...