I’m repeating this post from last November as a public service.
Letter: All Californians paying for illegal immigration
October 23, 2018, Chico Enterprise-Record:
In 1979 Cesar Chavez very much opposed illegal immigration as he felt it lowered the wages of his union members. According to some, he actually sent and paid his union members to the border to keep illegals out. Jerry Brown as governor in 1975 opposed illegal immigration for the same reasons.
My question is this. If illegal immigration hurts wages of current Californians, why is Brown and the Democratic Party in favor of a sanctuary state and illegal immigration? We are all having to pay for this “indiscretion.”
— Frank Solinsky, Chico
Cesar Chavez had good reason to oppose illegal immigration. When he attempted to unionize companies (legally), the companies responded by busing in illegals from Mexican and US border communities to work as scabs in the fields and orchards. Chavez responded by calling in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to remove those who were illegally in the country and did not have permission to work in the United States.
For those who are not familiar with Chavez (who died in 1993), I’ll quote Wikipedia here:
Originally a Mexican American farm worker, Chavez became the best known Latino American civil rights activist, and was strongly promoted by the American labor movement, which was eager to enroll Hispanic members. His public-relations approach to unionism and aggressive but nonviolent tactics made the farm workers’ struggle a moral cause with nationwide support. By the late 1970s, his tactics had forced growers to recognize the UFW as the bargaining agent for 50,000 field workers in California and Florida.
How much did Chavez oppose illegal immigration? This article from 2014 in The American Spectator explains:
Call it the whitewash of Cesar Chavez. Yes, that Cesar Chavez: the late farm worker unionizer (he died in 1993) honored repeatedly by President Obama. The man the Left loves to name drop for his role in organizing all-those grape and lettuce and melon pickers in the day.
But there is a considerable twist to the story. In fact, Cesar Chavez believed ferociously in the border of the United States — because that border protected his union. So ferociously did he hold this view that the New York Times ran a story detailing an accusation that the union Chavez founded, the United Farm Workers, set up a 100 mile “wet line” to keep “wetbacks” and “illegals” — yes, all of those are Chavez’s words — out of the United States. So let’s go back in the time machine to the period when Chavez was rocketing to fame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ9jIXHhFJI
So. What’s the big deal, you ask? A hat tip here to Mark Levin, who brought up a startling fact: Cesar Chavez was deeply opposed to illegal immigration. But the question here is why.
The fact is that just as Americans along the southern border today want it sealed to protect their private property or the safety of their families, Cesar Chavez wanted desperately to protect his union from illegal border crossings by Mexican “strikebreakers.” At core, Chavez was demanding — like property owners along the border today — that the sovereignty of the United States be respected. Those who remember Chavez recall him vividly as a committed Chicano activist who neither minced words nor shied away from acting on his beliefs. And in doing so, he put himself firmly on record against illegal immigration…
On February 7, 1979, the New York Times ran a story in which the paper reported that Chavez, during a UFW-led seven-month-long strike outside Yuma, Arizona, five years earlier, had the union establish a “100-mile-long ‘wet line’ of military-style tents to halt the flow of illegal aliens across the border.” What happened? Said the Times of a strike led by Cesar’s cousin Manuel Chavez: “… hundreds of Mexican aliens were brutally beaten by UFW representatives to keep them from crossing the border and taking the jobs of striking melon workers.”…
Of course, it isn’t only the legal Mexican farm workers who suffered by the suppression of wages brought about by illegal workers, who are often paid cash under the table at a much lower rate than those they replaced. Here is a story by a white construction worker (a painter):
When I had my roof replaced several years ago, I contracted with a local company owned by an American man and his wife. When the crew showed up, however, many (if not all) were Spanish speaking. I don’t know their immigration status, but I can guess.
Stella's Place 
Very good talk. I winced a little that he went on and on about how most are good people and respectful, etc. I remember those “good people” caused my friend and I to quit taking our daily walk because of the danger of so many illegals being on the streets. They were not respectful toward women and when I complained to my husband, his reply was that they were always respectful to him. Great. That was a big help. I told him it was because he didn’t have boobs.
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Chavez is a dim figure from the past who exists only as current users of his name remold him to meet their needs.
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Exactly,
There is a lot of Revision going on nowadays.
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Ehhhh, our side does it gtoo.
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I also point out when I see it. I am Equal Opportunity.
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I point out Revision to the writer when I see it, I am an Equal Opportunity sort of guy.
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I apologize. I did not see my first comment when I posted it again.
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Same here but I can cut our side some slack.
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Yup.
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Frederick Douglas and Booker T Washington both knew that Blacks did better when Immigration was restricted.
I wonder what the Reverends “Open Borders” Jesse & Al know that the first civil right icons didn’t know.
Booker T had a great speech entitled “Cast Down Your Bucket” for when he spoke to white officials. It would be lost on the Open Borders crowd, including those 2 clowns.
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I could give the high point, but that would not do it justice. I will see if I can find it.
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“Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are”: Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech. by Booker T. Washington. In 1895, Booker T. Washington gave what later came to be known as the Atlanta Compromise speech before the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.
“”Cast-Down-Your-Bucket-Where-You-Are”:-Booker-T …
historymatters.gmu.edu/d/88/
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“Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are”: Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech
by Booker T. Washington
In 1895, Booker T. Washington gave what later came to be known as the Atlanta Compromise speech before the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. His address was one of the most important and influential speeches in American history, guiding African-American resistance to white discrimination and establishing Washington as one of the leading black spokesmen in America. Washington’s speech stressed accommodation rather than resistance to the racist order under which Southern African Americans lived. In 1903, Washington recorded this portion of his famous speech, the only surviving recording of his voice.
Listen to Audio:
Booker T. Washington: Mr. President and gentlemen of the Board of Directors and citizens. One third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. I must convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, and Secretaries and masses of my race, when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized, than by the managers of this magnificent exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. Not only this, but the opportunities here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress.
Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of the bottom, that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill, that the political convention of some teaching had more attraction than starting a dairy farm or a stockyard.
A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: “Water, water. We die of thirst.” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time, the signal, “Water, send us water!” went up from the distressed vessel. And was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A third and fourth signal for water was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River.
To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of preservating friendly relations with the southern white man who is their next door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down, making friends in every manly way of the people of all races, by whom you are surrounded.
To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted, I would repeat what I have said to my own race: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your fireside. Cast down your bucket among these people who have without strikes and labor wars tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, just to make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South.
Source: Oral history courtesy of the Michigan State University Voice Library.
See Also:Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech
W.E.B. DuBois Critiques Booker T. Washington
Making the Atlanta Compromise: Booker T. Washington Is Invited to Speak
“Equal and Exact Justice to Both Races”: Booker T. Washington on the Reaction to his Atlanta Compromise Speech
{I’ll see if I can get rid of the one that refused to become a link. Grammerly claims there are 6 errors in this wriiting, I left them here because it might be historically accurate.}
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What a great speech. Too bad so many listened to others and not him.
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