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Agricultural laborers pick lemons inside the orchards of Samag Services, Inc., in Mesa, California on March 27, 2020. (Photo: Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
'Bullying of Marginalized Workers': Trump Moves to Slash Pay of Guest Farmworkers Amid Covid-19 Crisis
"While farmworkers are working during a pandemic to pick the food that feeds our families during this crisis, Trump is looking to cut their pay."
Apr 11, 2020
Led by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the Trump administration is reportedly pushing to slash the wages of foreign guest workers on U.S. farms in an ostensible effort to assist the American agricultural industry as it contends with market disruptions intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.
Immigrant rights advocates said the move, first reported by NPR on Friday, would be a cruel attack on vulnerable workers who are currently risking their own health and safety to help stock U.S. grocery stores and put food on Americans' tables amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
"While immigrant farmworkers risk their lives working w/o sufficient protection during this dangerous time, this country is excluding them from federal relief packages and lobbying to lower their wages."
--Movimiento Cosecha
"This is typical Trump bullying of marginalized workers," tweeted Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). "While farmworkers are working during a pandemic to pick the food that feeds our families during this crisis, Trump is looking to cut their pay. This is not how we should treat essential workers."
NPR reported that, at present, it is "unclear how the reforms would be made, including whether they would be taken through executive action or through the federal regulatory process."
"But Perdue has pushed for adjusting what is known as the adverse effect wage rate, which prevents farmers using the H-2A program from paying all workers--U.S. and guest workers--wages below the prevailing rates in the surrounding area," NPR reported.
Workers on the H-2A guest worker program make up an estimated 10% of the U.S. agricultural workforce.
\u201cAg industry has received $9.5billion in disaster aid. Why are growers pushing to cut wages for \u201cessential\u201d farm workers?\n\nWhite House Seeks To Lower Farmworker Pay To Help Agriculture Industry : NPR https://t.co/Epxs02oGKV\u201d— United Farm Workers (@United Farm Workers) 1586560418
Movimiento Cosecha, an immigrant rights group, said the Trump administration's reported plan shows that "the lives of essential workers feeding the country during this pandemic simply do not matter to the agriculture industry or to the government."
"While immigrant farmworkers risk their lives working without sufficient protection during this dangerous time, this country is excluding them from federal relief packages and lobbying to lower their wages," the group tweeted Saturday. "For immigrant workers, this is a call to action. Without our working hands, there is no labor to sustain this country--during crisis and always."
"Like other workers protesting and striking across the country," the group added, "we must use our labor to demand basic dignity and protection we deserve."
An Unconstitutional Rampage
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Led by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the Trump administration is reportedly pushing to slash the wages of foreign guest workers on U.S. farms in an ostensible effort to assist the American agricultural industry as it contends with market disruptions intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.
Immigrant rights advocates said the move, first reported by NPR on Friday, would be a cruel attack on vulnerable workers who are currently risking their own health and safety to help stock U.S. grocery stores and put food on Americans' tables amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
"While immigrant farmworkers risk their lives working w/o sufficient protection during this dangerous time, this country is excluding them from federal relief packages and lobbying to lower their wages."
--Movimiento Cosecha
"This is typical Trump bullying of marginalized workers," tweeted Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). "While farmworkers are working during a pandemic to pick the food that feeds our families during this crisis, Trump is looking to cut their pay. This is not how we should treat essential workers."
NPR reported that, at present, it is "unclear how the reforms would be made, including whether they would be taken through executive action or through the federal regulatory process."
"But Perdue has pushed for adjusting what is known as the adverse effect wage rate, which prevents farmers using the H-2A program from paying all workers--U.S. and guest workers--wages below the prevailing rates in the surrounding area," NPR reported.
Workers on the H-2A guest worker program make up an estimated 10% of the U.S. agricultural workforce.
\u201cAg industry has received $9.5billion in disaster aid. Why are growers pushing to cut wages for \u201cessential\u201d farm workers?\n\nWhite House Seeks To Lower Farmworker Pay To Help Agriculture Industry : NPR https://t.co/Epxs02oGKV\u201d— United Farm Workers (@United Farm Workers) 1586560418
Movimiento Cosecha, an immigrant rights group, said the Trump administration's reported plan shows that "the lives of essential workers feeding the country during this pandemic simply do not matter to the agriculture industry or to the government."
"While immigrant farmworkers risk their lives working without sufficient protection during this dangerous time, this country is excluding them from federal relief packages and lobbying to lower their wages," the group tweeted Saturday. "For immigrant workers, this is a call to action. Without our working hands, there is no labor to sustain this country--during crisis and always."
"Like other workers protesting and striking across the country," the group added, "we must use our labor to demand basic dignity and protection we deserve."
Led by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the Trump administration is reportedly pushing to slash the wages of foreign guest workers on U.S. farms in an ostensible effort to assist the American agricultural industry as it contends with market disruptions intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.
Immigrant rights advocates said the move, first reported by NPR on Friday, would be a cruel attack on vulnerable workers who are currently risking their own health and safety to help stock U.S. grocery stores and put food on Americans' tables amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
"While immigrant farmworkers risk their lives working w/o sufficient protection during this dangerous time, this country is excluding them from federal relief packages and lobbying to lower their wages."
--Movimiento Cosecha
"This is typical Trump bullying of marginalized workers," tweeted Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). "While farmworkers are working during a pandemic to pick the food that feeds our families during this crisis, Trump is looking to cut their pay. This is not how we should treat essential workers."
NPR reported that, at present, it is "unclear how the reforms would be made, including whether they would be taken through executive action or through the federal regulatory process."
"But Perdue has pushed for adjusting what is known as the adverse effect wage rate, which prevents farmers using the H-2A program from paying all workers--U.S. and guest workers--wages below the prevailing rates in the surrounding area," NPR reported.
Workers on the H-2A guest worker program make up an estimated 10% of the U.S. agricultural workforce.
\u201cAg industry has received $9.5billion in disaster aid. Why are growers pushing to cut wages for \u201cessential\u201d farm workers?\n\nWhite House Seeks To Lower Farmworker Pay To Help Agriculture Industry : NPR https://t.co/Epxs02oGKV\u201d— United Farm Workers (@United Farm Workers) 1586560418
Movimiento Cosecha, an immigrant rights group, said the Trump administration's reported plan shows that "the lives of essential workers feeding the country during this pandemic simply do not matter to the agriculture industry or to the government."
"While immigrant farmworkers risk their lives working without sufficient protection during this dangerous time, this country is excluding them from federal relief packages and lobbying to lower their wages," the group tweeted Saturday. "For immigrant workers, this is a call to action. Without our working hands, there is no labor to sustain this country--during crisis and always."
"Like other workers protesting and striking across the country," the group added, "we must use our labor to demand basic dignity and protection we deserve."
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Dem to Appeal 'Deeply Misinformed Decision' Threatening Over 60,000 Voters in North Carolina
"The North Carolina Republican Party is one step closer to stealing an election in broad daylight," said one state Democrat.
Apr 04, 2025
Allison Riggs, a Democratic associate justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, vowed to continue a legal battle over her narrow November victory after a state appeals panel on Friday took a major step toward invalidating more than 60,000 votes.
Riggs' GOP challenger, Judge Jefferson Griffin, lost by 734 votes—but rather than conceding, he has sought to have select ballots thrown out. In Friday's 2-1 decision, Republican Judges Fred Gore and John Tyson gave the targeted citizens 15 days to provide documentation to election workers confirming their eligibility to vote. If they don't do so, their votes could be discarded.
"We will be promptly appealing this deeply misinformed decision that threatens to disenfranchise more than 65,000 lawful voters and sets a dangerous precedent, allowing disappointed politicians to thwart the will of the people," Riggs said in a statement.
"North Carolinians elected me to keep my seat, and I swore an oath to the Constitution and the rule of law—so I will continue to stand up for the rights of voters in this state and stand in the way of those who would take power from the people," she added.
Since Riggs has recused herself from the case, only six of the North Carolina Supreme Court's justices will hear her appeal, "raising the possibility of a 3-3 deadlock," The News & Observer reported Friday.
As the Raleigh newspaper detailed:
If that were to happen, the most recent ruling of a lower court prevails, which means Friday's decision from the Court of Appeals could stand.
Riggs has said that if she loses at the state court level, she intends to return the case to federal court.
Republicans already hold a 5 to 2 majority on the state Supreme Court. If Griffin ultimately wins his case and replaces Riggs, that majority will grow to 6 to 1, further complicating Democrats' hopes to retake control of the court in coming elections.
Although the court fight is far from over, Griffin spokesperson Paul Shumaker and North Carolina GOP Chair Jason Simmons cheered Friday's decision, from which Democratic Judge Toby Hampson dissented.
Hampson's dissent begins by pointing out that Griffin "has yet to identify a single voter—among the tens of thousands petitioner challenges in this appeal—who was, in fact, ineligible to vote in the 2024 general election under the statutes, rules, and regulations in place in November 2024 governing that election."
"Changing the rules by which these lawful voters took part in our electoral process after the election to discard their otherwise valid votes in an attempt to alter the outcome of only one race among many on the ballot is directly counter to law, equity, and the Constitution," Hampson argued.
Democratic leaders in North Carolina and beyond also blasted the majority's decision. State Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said that "Judge Tyson and Gore put party affiliation above the rights of North Carolina voters" when they "legitimized Jefferson Griffin's unconstitutional challenge" to tens of thousands of legally cast votes.
Reminder: From my legal and partisan sources, this ultimately gets decided based on how fed courts address military and overseas voters who didn't provide photo ID (and were expressly advised before election that they didn't need to). Why it matters: andersonalerts.substack.com/p/nc-supreme...
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— Bryan Anderson (@bryanranderson.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 2:23 PM
North Carolina House of Representatives Minority Leader Robert Reives (D-54) declared: "We cannot mince words at this point: The North Carolina Republican Party is one step closer to stealing an election in broad daylight. Justice Allison Riggs won her election—full stop. Our democracy continues to be tested, but we cannot allow it to break."
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin warned that "this partisan decision has no legal basis and is an all-out assault on our democracy and the basic premise that voters decide who wins their elections, not the courts. If upheld, this could allow politicians across the country to overturn the will of the people."
"North Carolinians chose Allison Riggs to be their North Carolina Supreme Court justice," Martin stressed. "They won't stand for Republicans trying to take their votes away or those of active duty North Carolina military. It's six months past time for Jefferson Griffin to concede this race that he lost."
Bob Phillips, executive director of the nonpartisan voting rights organization Common Cause North Carolina, was similarly engaged, saying: "Today's ruling is a disgrace. This poorly conceived decision is an extreme overreach and sides with a sore loser candidate over the citizens of our state. If allowed to stand, the ruling would inject chaos into North Carolina's elections in ways that could disenfranchise tens of thousands of lawful voters and invite similar challenges nationwide."
Phillips continued:
Let's be clear: these North Carolina voters did absolutely nothing wrong. They followed the rules and cast ballots that should count. To say otherwise now is an affront to the rule of law and our Constitution.
If Griffin gets his way, never again will the people of North Carolina be able to have confidence in the outcome of our elections. Instead, Griffin's reckless lawsuit will open the door to an endless stream of other sore loser candidates who will attempt to throw out enough votes until they can cheat their way into office.
This fight is not over. We are confident that the courts will ultimately see Griffin's ploy for what it is: an unconstitutional attack on our freedom to vote.
"The people of North Carolina will continue to protest against Griffin's outrageous attack on our rights," he added, "as we continue our work to protect our family members, friends, and neighbors who are targeted by Griffin's disgraceful scheme."
US Court Orders Return of Man Trump Sent to Salvadoran Prison in 'Error'
"How the government reacts will tell us so much about how far down the road to autocracy we are," said one lawyer.
Apr 04, 2025
A U.S. judge on Friday ordered the return of a Maryland resident who the Trump administration mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador last month, according to The Associated Press.
Prior to issuing the ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis called the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia "an illegal act."
The judge, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, gave the Trump administration end of the day of the day on Monday to bring him back to the United States.
Supporters outside the courtroom cheered as the judge handed down her order, according to The Washington Post.
Responding to the ruling on social media, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said: "This is a big win. Now Trump must comply with the judge's order."
Immigration lawyer Ava Benach wrote: "The right decision. How the government reacts will tell us so much about how far down the road to autocracy we are."
The right decision. How the government reacts will tell us so much about how far down the road to autocracy we are.
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— avabenach.bsky.social (@avabenach.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Abrego Garcia was among hundreds of people the administration expelled in mid-March to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador after targeting them for alleged gang ties.
In a court papers filed earlier this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting field office director admitted that the removal of Abrego Garcia on March 15 "was an error."
Abrego Garcia was deported despite the fact that in 2019, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to his native El Salvador because he would likely face gang persecution there.
Amid Trump Tariff Chaos, DOGE 'Minions' Infiltrate Federal Trade Commission
"Corporations get let off the hook, Musk gets insider information, and the American people get hosed."
Apr 04, 2025
The latest U.S. agency in the crosshairs of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is reportedly the Federal Trade Commission, an already-understaffed department tasked with preventing monopolistic practices and shielding consumers from corporate abuses.
Axios reported Friday that at least two DOGE staffers "now have offices at" the FTC. According to The Verge, two DOGE members "were spotted" at the agency's building this week and "are now listed in the FTC's internal directory."
The Verge noted that the FTC is "a fairly lean agency with fewer than 1,200 employees," a number that the Trump administration has already cut into with the firing of some of the department's consumer protection and antitrust staff.
At least two of Musk's companies, Tesla and X, have faced scrutiny in recent years from the FTC, which is now under the leadership of Trump appointee Andrew Ferguson, who previously pledged to roll back former chair Lina Khan's anti-monopoly legacy.
Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director at the Demand Progress Education Fund, which referred to the operatives as Musk's "minions," said Friday that "DOGE is yet again raiding a federal watchdog tasked with protecting working Americans from Wall Street and Big Tech."
"The FTC has worked to stop monopolistic mergers that would have led to higher grocery prices and is now gearing up to go to court against Meta's social media monopoly," said Peterson-Cassin. "It's no surprise that at this moment, while the economy is in freefall and fraud is on the rise, DOGE is choosing to raid the federal watchdog that protects everyday Americans and threatens corporate monopolies and grifters."
News of DOGE staffers' infiltration of the FTC came as Trump's sweeping new tariffs continued to cause global economic turmoil and heightened concerns that companies in the U.S. will use the tariffs as a new excuse to jack up prices and pad their bottom lines.
Ferguson pledged in a social media post Thursday that under his leadership, the FTC "will be watching closely" to ensure companies don't view Trump's tariffs "as a green light for price fixing or any other unlawful behavior."
But Trump has hobbled the agency—and prompted yet another legal fight—by firing its two Democratic commissioners, a move that sparked fury and has already impacted the FTC's ability to pursue cases against large corporations.
Peterson-Cassin said Friday that "the only winners" of DOGE's targeting of the FTC "are Trump's billionaire besties like [Meta CEO] Mark Zuckerberg and especially Musk, who now stands to gain access to confidential financial information about every company ever investigated by the FTC, including the auto manufacturers, aerospace firms, internet providers, tech companies, and banks that directly compete with his own companies."
"Corporations get let off the hook, Musk gets insider information, and the American people get hosed," Peterson-Cassin added.
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