Expressing support for the designation of Cesar Chavez's birthday, March 31, 2019, as National Border Control Day.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 268 Expressing support for the designation of Cesar Chavez’s birthday, March 31, 2019, as National Border Control Day. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 28, 2019 Mr. GOSAR submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor RESOLUTION Expressing support for the designation of Cesar Chavez’s birthday, March 31, 2019, as National Border Control Day. Whereas Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona; Whereas, in 1962, Chavez founded the National Farm Work- ers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers, to improve the wages and working conditions for American farmworkers; Whereas Chavez’s union drew on the imagery of civil rights to use nonviolence and mass mobilization to improve the conditions of persecuted and impoverished American workers; VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Mar 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR268.IH HR268 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 268 IH Whereas Cesar Chavez believed that preventing illegal immi- gration was an essential prerequisite to improving the cir- cumstances of American farmworkers; Whereas, in 1969, Chavez led a march to the Mexican border to protest illegal immigration, joined by Senator Walter Mondale and Martin Luther King’s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Ralph Abernathy; Whereas Chavez noted that it is ‘‘almost impossible to start some effective program to get these people their jobs back from the braceros’’ once employers replace them; Whereas, in the 1970s, Chavez combined a campaign of iden- tifying and reporting illegal workers with a campaign to boycott nonunionized farms in order to protect the labor of the unionized American worker; Whereas Chavez recognized that flooding the labor market with people from abroad undermines the unionized Amer- ican worker; Whereas, in 1979, at the National Press Club, Chavez em- phatically supported enforcement of immigration laws, stating that ‘‘people are being hurt and being destroyed, and with the complicity and with the help, of the Federal Government’’; and Whereas President Clinton recognized Chavez’s work saying, ‘‘We can be proud of his enormous accomplishments and in the dignity and comfort he brought to the lives of so many of our country’s least powerful and most dispos- sessed workers’’: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Mar 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR268.IH HR268 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 268 IH (1) supports the designation of National Border 1 Control Day; 2 (2) expresses strong support for Cesar Chavez’s 3 fight to defend the interests of the American farm- 4 workers, and for his recognition that nonviolent ac- 5 tion could protect these workers against the business 6 interests which would replace them with illegal for- 7 eign labor; and 8 (3) encourages recognition and celebration of 9 National Border Control Day with appropriate cere- 10 monies and activities. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Mar 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR268.IH HR268 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS