New documentary film depicts lack of agricultural child labor protections in America

I recently received a call from Susan MacLaury, executive director and co-founder of Shine Global, a non-profit film production company dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of children through films. She and I had a great conversation about her upcoming documentary about agricultural child labor in America. I agreed to help Susan promote the film and raise awareness of the issue.

The Harvest (La Cosecha) tells the stories of children (between the ages of 5 and 16) who work 10-plus hours a day, in poor working conditions, in the hot sun and without the protection of child labor laws. This film depicts the lives of more than 400,000 children farm worker who pick America's produce instead of going to school to receive an education.

 

The Harvest (La Cosecha), produced by Shine Global



The goal of the film is to raise awareness and get the U.S. Congress to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act, which address the gap in child labor protections that all other American children enjoy. Somehow, the U.S. Congress has granted the farming industry this loophole.  

The documentary is produced by Shine Global and is expected to be released in early 2011. To learn more about the film, visit Shine Global's Website.



Arizona anti-immigrant extremist Russell Pearce is at it again

The author of Arizona’s anti-immigrant, discriminatory and unconstitutional law (SB1070) is now after U.S.-born children and also bilingual educators who happen to speak English with a heavy accent.

Russell Pearce, de-facto leader of the immigrant-bashing nativists and Republican state senator, is convinced the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is wrong to grant children born in this country the right to citizenship. Pearce claims our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) never intended for Latino children born in this country to be granted birthright citizenship.

The newly elected president of the Arizona state senate has pledged to introduce a bill this next legislative session requiring the State of Arizona to deny birth certificates to children born in the U.S. and whose parents are undocumented. Mr. Pearce, in case English is not your first language, here is what the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

Russell Pearce

If this was not bad enough, the anti-immigrant extremists in Arizona also want to fire bilingual teachers who happen to speak English with an accent. Pearce intends to introduce yet another anti-Latino bill. Instead of addressing - I don't know - real school reform or fix the economy or create jobs, the newly elected Republican leader wants to waste time on his personal, nativist agenda.

These political attacks on American children, students and educators are simply unacceptable. The GOP should stay away from this guy and his tactics. The Grand Old Party, if it continues to associate with and support these "Tancrazy" ideals, will be left vulnerable in future elections. Common-sense Americans and Latinos will not tolerate these extreme views and political attacks on families, children and our freedoms.