[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 61 (Tuesday, April 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H3441-H3442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE FARM LABOR RECRUITMENT SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, on April 9, 2007, 29-year-old Toledoan, 
Santiago Raphael Cruz, was found bound, gagged and beaten to death in 
Monterrey, Mexico, in the office of his employer, the Toledo-based Farm 
Labor Organizing Committee, or FLOC.
  Mr. Cruz moved from Toledo, Ohio, to Mexico 3 months ago to legally 
arrange for Mexican guest laborers to work for a North Carolina pickle 
plant with which FLOC has a contract. FLOC's efforts assured guest 
workers were treated humanely, that their papers were legal, and that 
the notorious crime-ridden labor recruitment system that characterizes 
farm labor on this continent would cease to exist.
  FLOC, which is part of the AFL-CIO, is a farm labor union and social 
movement based in our district led by Baldemar Velasquez. FLOC is 
perhaps most recently known for achieving a fair labor contract for 
guest workers in the United States with H2A visas in North Carolina. 
Mr. Velasquez led that campaign, as well as one to organize pickle 
workers in Ohio in the 1980s, and has been recognized as a MacArthur 
Foundation fellow.
  In Mexico, FLOC offered a safe, legal alternative to the exploitative 
promises of coyotes and those who charge exorbitant fees to smuggle 
Mexicans across the border. The union had been burglarized, and the 
workers harassed for their efforts to protect Mexicans wishing to work 
in our country.
  I learned, as I learned more about Mr. Cruz's brutal murder, I asked 
myself whether this horrendous crime could have been encouraged by 
FLOC's noble efforts to stop the illegal trafficking and continental 
labor caused by NAFTA. I have called upon the governments of the United 
States and Mexico to fully investigate and bring the perpetrators of 
this horrendous crime to justice. These coyotes prey upon desperate 
Mexican workers whose lands were taken from them by the Mexican 
Government under NAFTA. NAFTA set up conditions in North America for 
cruel exploitation of millions of landless peasants and workers in 
Mexico.
  Mr. Velasquez and FLOC worked endlessly to give people not only legal 
rights but hope for an end to the harsh treatment handed to them by the 
governments of the United States and of Mexico. The current and often 
illegal labor recruitment system is rife with corruption. It exploits 
landless peasants through a corrupt bounty system imposed by unsavory 
labor recruiters.
  Many times I have said NAFTA fuels illegal immigration by creating an 
exodus of massive proportion of people from the Mexican countryside who 
need something to eat after their livelihoods are taken from them. The 
manner in which these people are being exploited is a continental 
sacrilege. The problem with NAFTA and NAFTA-style trade agreements is 
they fail to take people into account.
  NAFTA and NAFTA-style agreements serve the interests primarily of the 
money classes. They reduce risks for Wall Street investors while 
raising the risk that workers in our heartland will lose their jobs and 
health care. They are manna for hedge funds, but a threat to the 
economic security of blue collar workers.

                              {time}  1930

  They leave people out of the question. Whether it is campesinos in 
Mexico trying to provide food for their families and eke out an 
existence taken from them by their own government in cahoots with ours 
through NAFTA, or auto workers in the Midwest pursuing the American 
dream of a house, a car, and a better life for their children, they are 
the forgotten people in our global economy.
  As Mr. Velasquez noted, Mr. Cruz had a good heart and was working for 
the people. Mr. Cruz gave his life in service to the forgotten people. 
We honor his commitment and we extend our sympathies to his family, to 
his friends, and to the entire FLOC community of which our community is 
so very proud.
  His horrific death reminds us how brutal and unforgiving the NAFTA-
induced labor system has become across our continent. It is time to 
renegotiate NAFTA. It is time not to extend it further. It is time to 
require continental labor standards that uphold the dignity of human 
life, not extinguish it.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit extraneous material for printing in the Record, 
and I thank my colleague from Washington for allowing me to speak.

               [From the toledoblade.com, April 12, 2007]

                     U.S. Demands Probe of Slaying

                           (By Clyde Hughes)

       The U.S. General Consulate Office in Mexico is pressing for 
     a complete investigation in the beating death of a Toledo 
     union worker found dead early Monday at the union's office in 
     Monterrey, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) said 
     yesterday.
       Law enforcement officials from the state of Nuevo Leon are 
     investigating the death of Santiago Rafael Cruz, 29, a 
     Mexican native who has lived in Toledo since 1998 and had 
     worked for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee as manager of 
     its Monterrey office for three months, said Baldemar 
     Velasquez, longtime president of the union.
       Mr. Velasquez said he believed Mr. Cruz's death is directly 
     related to FLOC's efforts to organize workers in the 
     Monterrey area.
       He said the union's education efforts made workers there 
     less susceptible to people who would charge workers large 
     sums of money to enter the United States illegally.
       FLOC's program there recruits Mexican residents interested 
     in going to the United States as part of a guest-worker 
     program through a contract the union has with a North 
     Carolina pickle company, union officials said.
       Mr. Cruz was bound, gagged, and beaten, Miss Kaptur said 
     yesterday.
       She said she talked with Edward Heartney, consul for 
     politics and economic affairs with the U.S. consulate general 
     in Monterrey,

[[Page H3442]]

     who assured her he'd press the Mexican government for a 
     thorough investigation and offer the assistance of the FBI.
       Miss Kaptur said she also could call for a special 
     investigation, which is allowed through the North American 
     Free Trade Agreement, which would engage the labor 
     departments of both the United States and Mexico.
       She said the investigation provision in NAFTA, though, does 
     not provide for sanctions.
       ``Right now, they need to do the basic policing work,'' 
     Miss Kaptur said. ``Our government is engaged and I wanted 
     [Mr. Heartney's] assurance on that. You see how NAFTA is 
     contributing to this endless stream of people who are so 
     vulnerable to exploitation.
       ``There are no worker protections under NAFTA. When [FLOC] 
     does try to take the illegality out of what's going on there, 
     this sort of horrendous tragedy occurs. It will be taken note 
     of on a national level here.''
       Mr. Velasquez said his union workers have been harassed 
     there before for organizing workers and helping them obtain 
     legal documents to work in the United States.
       He said he believes that people running illegal operations 
     to move Mexicans into the United States see FLOC as a threat.
       ``We're actually fighting the corruption that's prevalent 
     in this area,'' Mr. Velasquez said via phone call from 
     Monterrey. ``There's been 10 policemen killed here in the 
     last year. We've educated the workers not to be taken 
     advantage of and some people here don't like that, but we 
     have to carry on the work.''
       Mr. Velasquez said Mr. Cruz's body will be returned to 
     Puebla, Mexico, where the majority of his family is located, 
     for a funeral. He said arrangements for the funeral have not 
     been made yet.
       He said Mr. Cruz's work with FLOC, which dates to his 
     arrival to Toledo in 1998, made a difference in the union.
       ``He had a heart for the people,'' Mr. Velasquez said. ``He 
     spent his extra time consulting people, teaching them how not 
     to get cheated and ripped off by phony promises by people who 
     said they could get papers for undocumented folks, and he 
     would explain any proposals out there for immigration reform.
       ``Basically, he wouldn't allow people to be duped by other 
     people wanting to take advantage of people's ignorance. He 
     was very effective at that.''
       Mr. Velasquez and Miss Kaptur said the murder investigation 
     is still in the early stages and both said they plan on 
     following the results closely.

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