Members Rally in Solidarity with Detained Farm Workers

1199ers gathered in solidarity with United Farm Workers (UFW) and community allies who were rallying on May 19 in Brooklyn to demand the release of 14 UFW worker leaders detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The farm workers were on a work bus on their way to LynneEtte & Sons Inc in Kent, Upstate NY, on May 2. Workers told the UFW they didn’t see an arrest warrant from ICE, but a company representative let ICE on the bus regardless. The workers were then taken off the bus, shackled and driven off in unmarked vans. The UFW had been working to organize with the same workers who are being detained.

Gabriella Szpunt of the UFW said that an entire family was swept up in the raid including a father who was separated from his infant child.

“These workers just want to be able to survive and support their families. The work that they do is very grueling. They are on their knees most of the day, cutting cabbage. Even during COVID, they were the only people that were working. They just want to have dignity on the job and they shouldn’t have to fear being deported,” added Szpunt.

At the rally, she called on U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to use their authority as elected officials to exert pressure on the Department of Homeland Security to release the detained farm workers.