The Farmworker Association of Florida has played a leading role in the struggle for dignity, respect and just treatment for for Florida’s immigrant farmworkers.  It is estimated that over 50% of farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented immigrants, the majority coming from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti and other Caribbean nations.  Reasons for migration to this country vary.  Poverty, political repression, loss of communities and livelihoods in their home countries, and lack of opportunities for employment are among the driving forces that compel men and women, even children, to risk their lives in order to seek a means of survival in a strange country.  Immigrant workers are the backbone of the U.S. economy today, though, because of their immigration status, fear and intimidation, socio-economic class, and racial profiling, immigrants are often extremely vulnerable to abuse and to violations of their civil and human rights.  FWAF works to educate, empower and mobilize farmworkers and low-income workers in the struggle for immigrants’ rights.

Community Organizing.  FWAF engages farmworkers and low-income immigrant workers through community organizing that informs and educates participants, while involving them in local, statewide, regional and national projects and strategies that have an impact on the civil and human rights of immigrants.  Throughout the 2006 – 2007 intensified national debate on the issue of immigrants in the U.S. and of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, FWAF communities played a key leadership role in Florida, that included organizing local and statewide rallies and marches and helping to defeat harsh anti-immigrant ordinances in the towns of Avon Park and Palm Bay.  On a national level, FWAF organizes delegations of farmworkers to travel to Washington, D.C. to address members of Congress on issues of concern to farmworkers and to immigrants.

Leadership Development.  Identifying and developing leadership from within our communities is a key component of all the organization’s programs, including the Immigrants’ Rights Program.  Leaders work within their communities to motivate, involve and mobilize community members to become engaged in community meetings, public hearings, local and statewide actions, advocacy with policy and decision makers, and to serve as representatives and delegates to activities and events on a regional, statewide and national level.

Civic Participation/Advocacy.  Using a training manual developed by the People’s Advocacy Center for Training and a dvd created by the Florida Catholic Conference, FWAF conducts trainings with community members on how to advocate with lawmakers and decision makers on issues and policies of concern to farmworker and immigrant communities.  Advocacy activities include giving personal testimony at meetings and in various forums; appealing to local, state and national political leaders and policy makers; organizing petition, letter writing, and call-in campaigns; and engaging in actions and activities with farmworker and immigrants’ rights organizations and other allies.  Civic participation activities include voter registration campaigns, organizing candidate forums and town hall meetings, and advocating with lawmakers and decision makers on policy issues of concern to the community.

Citizenship.  Staff at FWAF assists community members with the process of filing for adjustment of their immigration status.  This includes referring community members to resources for citizenship classes, English-as-a-Second Language classes, as well as referral to professional legal services, when warranted.  These activities are, also, used as a tool for engaging and organizing community members to become involved in the organization’s immigrants’ rights work.