 And tonight I want to hear from you. I'm going to give a speech out there a little while, but tonight, right here, I want to hear from you. We'll talk about anything that people want to talk about. I'm very interested in what's going on in terms of the working conditions, facing farm workers, how the environments and climate change is impacting the economy here. I'm interested in criminal justice issues, role of the police, interested about access to health care for the people are getting the health care that they need. Obviously interested in the issues like immigration reform. So those are some of the issues and the other issues you have and you'll throw them out. So why don't we Bill, how are we going to proceed? Senator, thank you for being here. My name is Bill Velazquez, I'm the national director of Latino outreach for this general. And we're honored to be here today in Baker's Field. So what we'd set up for the program is we have three panelists who are reflective of the community, who each would like to make a statement, a brief statement, and then ask you a question, Senator. And if you could answer the question after each panelist, it would go smoother. And then if there's time, we'd definitely want to go out to the audience and get their questions. So the first person I'd like to introduce is Lorena Lara. She is an immigration activist and organizer here in the community of Baker's Field. And she would like to give you a statement or question. Yeah, thank you so much. Like Bill mentioned, my name is Lorena Lara. I'm a community organizer with Faith and Action County. We're a larger and larger network called Pico National. My question is a little bit long, so I'm going to be reading off my cell phone, excuse me. So over the last seven years, over 2 million people have been deported and Congress has held to pass any positive changes in immigration policy to help the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in this country. Instead, detention and deportation of our community has increased here in Baker's Field, as well as other parts of the Central Valley. We have sheriff departments who collaborate closely with immigration and customs enforcement and have gone so far as to have ICE agents stationed outside the county jails. We have also seen the proliferation of private companies profiting off our communities through detention centers like the one we have here called Mesa Verde, which is owned by GO Group, the second largest private detention facility owner. So my question is, Senator Sanders, as president, what will you do to end the deportation machine that has devastated the lives of farm workers and millions of other undocumented immigrants in our communities? Good, very good question. Number one, I've introduced legislation to end corporate ownership of prisons and detention centers. I don't think it is a good idea for private companies to be making money through the imprisonment of people in this country. It encourages more prisoners, and that's not what we want to do. We will also, obviously, fight for comprehensive immigration reform. With 11 million undocumented people in this country, it is very clear to me that we have a broken immigration system and we need comprehensive immigration reform and a path toward citizenship. The goal of my immigration policies will be to unite families, not to divide families, which means that we will also end the current deportation of policies that currently exist, like this agree with President Obama. Questioner, Joey Williams, who is an organizer for Faith in Action and Executive Director, and is doing a lot of work recently on misconduct of police officials. Joey. Senator Sanders, one of the well-communicated current county, the Baker Show, taking the time to be here. I heard recently at one of your debates, I was watching, that you support 21st century policing task force recommendations outlined under the President's commission. 21st century policing calls for transparency, accountability, and building trust. Here in current Faith in Action, many members of Faith in Action are here, have worked tirelessly for this to be implemented. Current county was identified by the Guardian in December as having the most officer-involved shootings killing per capita in the United States. Police have investigated themselves and are often investigated by their own fellow officers on these shootings. I have sat with many family members and some of them are here today who have been victims of these shootings, and family members, due to these policies. Senator Sanders, if you're elected President of the United States, will you support a full implementation of 21st century policing, providing accountability, independent investigation of officers using deadly force, implicit bias training involving procedural justice between officers and communities of color, and if elected as President of November, would you or senior staff come back here in early 2017 to work with us in the community to make sure this is implemented? Thank you. Very good question. I think most Americans recognize that we have a criminal justice system today, which is broken. What do I mean by that? I mean that we have more people in jail in this country today than any other country under 2.2 million people who are spending $80 billion a year to lock up 2.2 million people. So a lot of fact is involved in that. So number one, what I would say to you, I'm gonna do my best in terms of criminal justice to make sure that we end that international disgrace. I would rather invest in jobs and education for young people rather than more jails in incarceration. So we want to keep it quiet. How many kids in this country hanging around without jobs and not in school, and when that happens they get into trouble. But to get to your questions, which are excellent questions. I was a mayor, I don't know if anybody here has ever been to Vermont, anybody been to Vermont? Okay, it's the other end of the world, but. And I was a mayor there for eight years in Burlington, Vermont. And I worked very closely with our police department. And I've worked with police departments all over the country and I'm more in force on issues. The vast majority of police officers in this country are honest and hardworking people and they have a very difficult job. But to your point, we have got to establish a culture in this country where it is very clear that like any other public official, if a police officer breaks the law, that officer must be held accountable. Now that gets to your second point or another of your points. It is not good enough to have police officers investigating other police officers. When there is a killing by a police officer when somebody is killed under my administration, that will immediately initiate a federal department of justice investigation. And number three, what we have got to do is develop a culture which exists in many other countries around the world, by the way, that legal force, the killing of somebody is the last response, not the first response. There are ways, you know, a policeman's job is not easy. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen fights with policemen who have to go in there and break it up. It is not easy. People are drunk, people, whatever. But what the culture should be is that we do everything that we can possibly to end the problem without using legal force. Now sometimes, you know, somebody comes running in here with a machine gun. You know what? We want legal force. But to the degree that we can resolve that problem, legal force should be the last response, not the first response. We need also, as I mentioned a moment ago, to demilitarize police departments. Police departments, a good police department. And there are many in America on departments where the police are trusted by the community. So that the community goes to them and there's a problem. You want people to be able to go to a police office and say, you know what, their drug deal is down there and feel confident that the police are gonna be working with you and there are many departments like that. We do not want police departments to look like occupying all these or to be terrifying the people in their own communities. Other point that I would make is that we want police departments to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. You know, people feel more comfortable in those circumstances. So there are a lot of issues related to criminal justice reform. These are issues very important to me. And yes, I would be very happy to visit you after I'm president. Thank you Senator Sanders. Next up is Caroline Farrell. Yeah! She's an environmental justice advocate in the San Joaquin Valley. She's here as an individual, but you all know her as the executive director of the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment. Woo! She works predominantly with farm worker communities here in Kern and nearby counties. So Caroline, could you please ask your question? Thank you Senator Sanders for coming. We love it when we actively engage. Political leadership comes to Kern County, so thank you very much. The San Joaquin Valley contributes more than half to California's $47 billion agricultural economy. The 24% of the Valley's population live in poverty. It's a region that's often compared to Appalachia. The ag sector is one of the driving forces of the economy in the Kern County. And it often is exempted from environmental laws, immigration laws, and employment laws. And this has led to a lot of the economic and environmental burdens that the region faces. Everything from high unemployment, low wage labor, to some of the worst air quality in the nation. Climate change and its impacts are going to have to change the way the region's economy operates. And whether those changes are going to benefit farm workers and other adversely impacted communities is largely gonna depend on the leadership that's in power during this time of transition. And my question for you, Senator, is what will you do as president to help farm workers and other impacted residents navigate this transition and prosper along with everyone else? A member of the United States Senate was in the House for 16 years and the Senate for nine years. I don't believe that there is any member of the Congress who has been there as long as I, otherwise a strong, low pro labor record. And that's not just a very high voting record. I've been on more picket lines than I can recall. I was, anybody here know where a Mockley Florida is? What a Mockley Florida is? Okay, a Mockley Florida is a small town in Naples, Florida where they grow a lot of the tomatoes that I use by McDonald's and the other fast food franchises. And I went there about 10 years ago, nine to 10 years ago to take a firsthand look at what conditions were. And I want to find out more about conditions here. But conditions were on the farms for the tomato workers. And they were deplorable. When I got there, just coincidentally, when I got there, the U.S. attorney had arrested a contractor, farm worker contractor, for slavery, slavery, because he was holding people in involuntary servitude, forcing people to work against their will in America 10 years ago. People there, their working conditions were awful. They didn't get, they would go out into the fields. They would have to wait there for hours. Didn't get paid for that. The housing that they worked in was deplorable. Yeah, a bunch of people sharing really wretched housing. Healthcare, virtually not accessible. We worked with those workers, by the way, had a hearing in Washington with the late Ted Kennedy, and we actually ended up improving the situation there. We ended up getting those workers better wages and better working conditions. So I believe that farm workers should not be exempt from labor law. And in fact, in terms of labor law, let me be very clear. I have campaigned from the day I began for a $15 an hour minimum wage. And for pay equity for women. So that women do not make 79 cents out of $1. And for them. And when we talk about healthcare access, I wanna hear from you and from the people in the audience about those issues. The United States was drawing the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. I want everybody, regardless of their income, to be able to get quality healthcare. With regard to environmental issues, I have introduced the most comprehensive climate change legislation ever introduced. So let us be clear. This is not good news, but it is true. I know that Donald Trump does not believe that climate change is real. But all of the scientists believe that climate change is real. Trust the scientists is a little bit more than Donald Trump. And what that means is that we're gonna have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel into energy efficiency and into sustainable energies like wind and solar and geothermal. And when we do that, I believe we can create many millions of good-paying jobs. Also, I am very concerned, I was in another part of California where the same issue arose. We gotta take a hard look at what pesticides are doing. To have a closer look at what pesticides and the quality of the water that we drink. But we need a lot more work to protect people who are doing some of the most important and difficult work. We were driving it from San Maria and I've never been in this part of the world before. Unbelievable. I mean, it really is. I probably went through a lot of California which is bigger than the state of Vermont. It is. So, the amount of agricultural land that we saw is unbelievable. Melbourne is what we saw. So, we are gonna take, and I wanna hear from you about when you see the problems. But there's no question. We will do our best to end the kind of exploitation that farm workers are now experiencing. And lastly, let me say that when we talk about poverty and people working for inadequate wages, don't believe that it is just here. It may be bad here, but it is all over this country. 47 million people are living in poverty. Millions of people are working for nine or 10 bucks an hour and you can't live on nine or 10 dollars an hour. People don't have healthcare. People's educational opportunity for the children in many parts of this country is absolutely inadequate. And I think the main point that I would make to you is that it is time to end a government which represents the 1% and let's elect a government which represents the 99% of the government. So, it's okay, but I would like to do this. I'm here not to give you the speech comes later, but I wanna learn from you and be honest with you, Frank. Tell me what is going on with farm workers? What kind of lives people are experiencing? What are the problems that people are seeing? We don't have a whole lot of time, so. We have a microphone in the audience. Hands up for people who want to get a question. Are you the mic guy? Okay, we have a young lady right here. Why don't you stand up? Okay. Thank you. The mic guy, Tisha. Thank you for being here, Senator Sanders. Welcome to the San Joaquin Valley. I was born in Mexico and came to this country when I was three and I'm actually a little further north in Fresno, so I'll see you there tomorrow. But, you know, I am a daughter of a farm worker family. My father turned 53 yesterday and can barely walk. My dad has been working in the field since he was 15 when he immigrated to this country and is still working there today and it's 92 degrees outside. So, the work continues. A lot of the issues that farm workers continue to face is exposure to pesticides. We continue to see the issue. We continue to see the contamination of our groundwater. We have some of the worst. Let me ask you a question. Our exposure to pesticides. So, what, their faces are in the pesticide. They're inhaling that stuff. Is that what's going on? Yes. All right, and do we see illnesses as a result of that? We do. We see some of the worst health outcomes. We see people exposed. We see people having children with birth defects. We see issues with cardiovascular disease. We see people contract asthma. We have some of the highest asthma rates in the country. We continue to see these issues continue to be prevalent. And not only are we seeing issues with pesticide exposure and farm workers are being told to get back in the field and work within minutes, within hours of this field being sprayed, but we're also seeing continued groundwater contamination. It is not a legacy issue. The drought did not make things worse. We didn't wake up today and see that the drought had made things worse. This is an issue that continues to happen. The drought made groundwater quality worse. Many of our communities can't drink from their tap and are paid twice for water. We also have dilapidated housing. No affordable housing opportunities. In Kern County today, we need at least close to 30,000 affordable housing units to meet the need because we cannot make that happen. Okay, thank you very much. And I wanna stay on some of the issues Veronica raised. Let's stay on pesticides and human illness. People working in the fields getting ill from pesticides. Who wants to talk about that? Anybody else? Yes ma'am. Hi, Senator Sanders. My name is Sandra Cinder, I live on Castro. And I think part of the challenge is that not only are farm workers and others being exposed to pesticides and other contaminants, but to make matters worse, they're being denied access to healthcare. Just last year in Fresno County, we had to fight against our County Board of Supervisors because they were removing the only safety net program that allowed undocumented residents access to primary and specialty care. And we see that across our valley where farm workers and other low income people who are not eligible for under the Affordable Care Act are being denied access to basic life safety care. Let me ask you a question. I work very hard during the passage of the Affordable Care Act to greatly expand community health centers. Do you have any community health centers in this area? We do have community health centers. By the way, take anybody who walks in the door. Yes, they do. The challenge is that our community health centers are at capacity. And what made it worse is by cutting our the medically independent services program, we then created a shortage of access points for undocumented folks to access healthcare. And the most important piece of that is that federally qualified health centers only provide primary care access. The challenge here is specialty care. Okay, got it. Thank you. Stay on pesticides, healthcare and water for the moment. Gentleman over there please. Hi Sanders, I'd like to thank you for coming. And I'm pretty sure we'd all love to take a nap or you're already pretty tired. But my question for you is when it comes to pesticides and houses, schools that go around fields, they're affected, you know, there's a pattern of the people that live in the houses closer to the fields get cancer at a rate that's much higher here in Kern County. I think it's like one of the highest cancer rates and it's projected to double in 10 years. So what I'd like to know is, you know, there's elementary schools filled with minority children and houses filled with minority communities. What can we do not just for the workers, but for the people that are just outliers affected by the pesticides? It goes without saying, you know, that if a product is being used, which causes cancer, you don't use that product. I mean, that's not a, I don't think that's a very difficult conclusion to reach. Have there been health studies in the area, independent health studies documenting the kinds of illnesses or the kind of clusters that might suggest the relationship between pesticides and illness? Are we aware of that? Yes, sir. I'll get to you next, yeah. Sir. Senator Sanders, a few years back, like 25, 30 years ago, Cesar Chavez conducted with his pesticide task force a whole series of investigations as to why the cancer clusters were being initiated here in Kern County, McFarland, Delano, Erling-Mart, all of these little tiny rural communities. And what they found was a whole macro lay of obstacles to get to the root of how this was being connected to the health of the children. Children were being stillborn. They were dying as soon as, right after they were born without livings and things. And one of the biggest single things that they found was the seepage of the nitrates into the water and the contamination that ensued. But the big corporations, the big corporations among Santos and others that were into the chemical and petroleum business continuously would interfere with the investigations. And of course they would pay for their medical opinions. And to this day that exists, you will not find the adequate information to be able to pin it on these guys. Okay, thank you. Yes, gentlemen, I'm blue shirt. Good afternoon, Senator. I've been filling the room for a long time, and I'm very nervous about the project. I'm very nervous. I'm nervous because I don't get to be new today. It's Saturday, so I'm not working. But during the week, I am the project coordinator for Central California Environmental Justice Network. And when we do, we have a community-based reporting network where community members are able to report to us an infinite amount of problems. Something that we've seen a lot same within pesticide around is that communities have always reported to us buffer zones where contractors and rancheros and big industrial farms are applying pesticides near their homes and near schools, right? And so we've gained a big relationship with the local current act commissioners. And it seems like their unwillingness to act on these issues and to protect communities of minority communities of color is not a big problem. Recently, we had one of their inspectors say, well, we don't want to bother the farmer too much with the farm workers' issues, right? And so these are issues that need to be addressed, and they talk about bigger environmental justice issues in rural communities and rural California. I have spent my entire life taking on corporations like Monsanto. All right, and we run into Monsanto and other large biotech companies in many, many areas. For example, just a little bit different issue is that I believe that there should be labeling on the food products that you need. And we also want to, of course, we've had to fight Monsanto on that but my state did pass without legislation, by the way. You know, I think as the gentleman here said and as you said, we are taking on large corporations who make billions of dollars a year of all kinds of lawyers, all kinds of press agents, and they do whatever they can to try to suppress the truth. You all remember, you know, because I'm older than the most of you, but you know, a long time ago, the tobacco industry spent billions of dollars trying to convince the American people that smoking was good for you. You know, they have doctors on television saying, I smoke this, it's really good. All right, right now, as we speak today, you have ExxonMobil and large fossil fuel industries pouring millions of dollars into phony organizations which they have established trying to deny the reality of climate change. And what you're seeing here, what I'm hearing here is you have these other corporations who are trying to deny that their products or the way they grow their food are causing very severe human illness. Nothing to do, that's what these guys always do. They live on the greed, and all they wanna do is make as much money as they can and if people get sick or exploited or die, that is not their concern. And that is the culture that we have got to change in this country from top to bottom. We can grow food in this country that is healthy. We can do it in a way where workers are treated with dignity and respect and earn a decent wage, we can do it. But we can't do it unless you have a president and a congress prepared to stand up to these large corporations. Now, let's, I wanna get to the water issue now. All right, tell me about water, drinking water. Let me get to something new. All right, yes ma'am, okay. Susana Danda, thank you for coming, Senator Bernie. I believe clean water is a basic human right and it should not be a privilege. Every year, Californianos are exposed to illegal and unsafe levels of contaminants found in their drinking water. Over one million Californianos each year and the vast majority of folks are found here in the valley exposed to that toxic water. We're talking about nitrates. One, two, three TCP, DVCP, uranium per gloria. Things you do not want to have in your drinking water and it's important that people understand the drinking water because we're being twice for water for a toxic bill. And on top of that having to buy bottled water like we have here to avoid becoming sick. It's unfortunate that we have this reality. California passed a bill, 8685, the human right to water, very indicative of the conditions we're facing in California. So I'm here to tell you, as our future president, if you become, please ensure that all Californianos in the entire United States have access to same, clean and affordable drinking water. We're tired of pollution and we won't stand up for that anymore. Thank you. We wanna stay on, we wanna stay on board. People tell me of personal experiences or experiences they know of what is that is unhealthy. Gentlemen, way to back there, right back there. Way to go. Bernie, welcome to current county to Bakersfield. My name is Juan Flores. I'm a community organizer for the Central Race Poverty Environment. And water pollution is a big issue here in current county. We are living on a drought and the oil companies, through fracking, are polluting or drinking water. There's actually water wells right now that we could usually, that we could use to kind of lower the drought and help ourselves. And we're not able to use it because the oil companies have contaminated with the produce water that they use on fracking. 98% of fracking happens here in current county. And they're killing us, little by little. Thank you. All right, water, water on water. You wanna speak to water? Gentlemen. Yes, sir. Yeah, out of water. Throughout the valley, we have a lot of rural communities. A good example is the community of arming that is not in compliance right now. People cannot drink the water from, you know, the tap. They have to pay for that. So I'm getting it. People cannot drink the water from their tap. Correct. Because of all those contaminants that are helping for people. Let me ask you this. How many people are we talking about who cannot drink tap water? In just that community, it's 20,000, but that is just one community. 20,000 people. Correct. And over the backside, you can't drink. You're told that the tap water is unhealthy. 20,000 people in just one community. You know what? Don't think anybody in America knows this stuff. No. No. Yeah, it is just an example. You know, but you can go throughout the valley and there is contamination everywhere by pesticides, by fracking, by lack of. Let me ask you this. Let me ask this. So I am living on one of these 20,000 people and I can't drink my tap water. Yes. All right. for water. You need to buy you need to buy from you know bottle waters to be a little bit safer but if we need to do if you can want to do something when you become your president we need to take care of that because you know we cannot live without water. Are people still forced to pay their basic water bill even though they can't What is the minimum what might you pay? I live in Tahatchipi so Tahatchipi is east of here in the mountains and where I live it's in Cummins Valley we have not been able to drink the water since October so obviously I'm seeing mom three kids you've talked about poverty and we have to help you get You have to buy a bottle of water. It gets expensive for the bottle of water but if anything I mean it's truly complete inconvenience I mean it's having to remember to go and buy water but at my house I am still charged the base rate even if I never touch the water or turn it on forty seven fifty a month. I assume people have raised this issue that they don't want to pay a fee for water they can't drink. What is the response? They claim anybody that is different they claim us all the laughlets. One of our world supervisors is the menace you know even trying to force a lady to sit down because she was complaining and representing this community that they don't know water carrying it and they pay 120 dollars. And every dollar a month they cannot even date the water and you take a shower there it's terrible. I mean we got that problem. What do you mean it's terrible? Your body? You are more clean by not taking the shower. I was in Flint Michigan a few months ago and you all know the story of Flint Michigan where children poisoned by letting the water run. And I think what I am learning and I think the American people haven't learned it yet is that this water crisis goes a lot beyond Flint Michigan. I think and what they are doing in Flint which seems to me to be sensible. If I were here in this community the idea of having to pay a basic fee was a forty seven minimum before you use a drop. You know people should not be paying for poison water. And in fact you know you should ask for a rebate from the day that you stopped being able to use the water. It seems to me to be the sensible and bad thing. Okay we got a hand right here. Yes sir. I'm nervous. First of all I just want to tell you Senator Sanders that what we are doing all the work that we can to definitely you are going to win Central California. I have my delegates right here so they are going to be in Philadelphia and they are going to be hollering for you. And also I want to tell you that I grew up in the United Farm Workers Movement. I know maybe they didn't invite you to go someplace but the movement was not a particular family. It's been everybody. I know there is people right here that probably weren't involved in it too. I know David B. I didn't know he used to be his bodyguard when I was four years old. Absolutely. So and my dad as well. So you have plenty of representation from Farm Workers and you have representation also from the United States Navy background as well. And you also have a representation that someone that grew up here seemed to have seen their dad work till forever. He gave me the motivation to go to college. To make a difference. To become a physician. To do everything that I can because that's what we are doing now. We are working 24 hours. You are leading in the polls and you are going to be leading even more. Because guess what? You inspire us with that fire. I want to keep doing it. I want to keep doing it because guess what? You talk about the issues that all of us care about. Okay. And that stuff that we did before that we used someone. I don't know what happened. But guess what? We are tired of it. There is plenty of water issues. There is plenty of pesticide issues. There is plenty of issues that lack healthcare. There is plenty of issues that you definitely put your foot on as far as passing $15.1 million for a United States veteran with the Post-911 bill. Everything that provided those opportunities is because guess what? They went there and they defended the nation. Now I've seen plenty of issues where we've posted like in countries in Haiti or the United States Navy had political water systems developed there. But why the heck can't we have them? One of the scandals. You know one of the things you learn when you run for president. Which is an extraordinary experience by the way. There should be so many beautiful people like the people in this room. One of the serious problems among many other serious problems is that people don't know. Nobody in America knows what you just told me. The 20,000 people. But more than that. Nobody knows that. Million. That's just a million. Cannot turn on. Nobody knows that. And that has a lot to do with media reports. We talk about corporations. It's the same business. But I think what I'm trying to say in your presentation, you know, touched me. Is that most of the people in this country are good people and are decent people. Nobody that I know thinks that a worker should get sick because he's working around pesticides. And nobody that I know thinks that somebody should pay $50 a month for water when you can't drink that water. When nobody in America even knows that there are millions of people who turn on the tap water and they can't drink it. How in God's name are we not holding the people accountable for that? You can't go around poisoning people. If somebody came in here with a bat and hit somebody in the head of the police, we'll arrest them. Well, if somebody is poisoning the children, that person should be indicted as well. We cannot continue this. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm from Oaxaca. I'm undocumented. I'm a member of the immigrant community that works in the countryside. And I want to say that you as a senator that is here in the United States, I want you to help us to reinforce the laws with companies because many parts give us dirty water that they have for two or three days. So, I as a representative of the Tricky region and of the immigrant community that I'm here right now, I want to make a reminder to you that the laws are well established so that you can give us clean water. Thank you. Thank you very much. My name is José Amoso Tricky from Oaxaca, Mexico. I'm one of the undocumented farm workers that's here. And I'm just simply asking you to please reinforce the laws that are out there because there's a lot of abuse that's going on in the fields. We are one of the largest populations working in the fields right now that tend to be abused because of the language barriers, because of the documents. So, we're asking you please to enforce those laws so that we can basically work decently. Okay. José, thank you for the question. Okay. What kind of wages are people making in the fields of what are the working conditions? That wants to say, sir? How do they get paid by the pieces? So, again, there's a lot of robbery of salaries. For example, the strawberry industry right now is at the Mariel. The worker basically gets paid by the piece or quote by the box that they pick. $1.25, yet that same box goes for $40 at the market. So, there's a lot of exploitation and that's another way or another loophole that the growers find instead of having a salary. How long does it take to work out? We're looking at maybe 12 hours a day where people are literally running. They're doing triathlons in the fields. They're bent over almost 12 hours. They are carrying 25 pounds every five minutes and they are running from here to where you're going to be speaking at and then running back. So, these are people without healthcare. These are people that are damaging their joints, that are also being manipulated. For example, if the grower provides them with any type of quote health insurance, it's only a clinic that they are assigned to. When the worker goes and complains about the injuries, the doctors there never find nothing wrong and they're always sent back to work again. If they use that same insurance to go to any other clinic, they're not valid. So, we're asking you to please reinforce those laws. We're just talking about being more human. And yes, there's thousands and thousands of indigenous oaxacanos working in the fields nowadays. That's one of the reasons why the UFW is not supporting the farm workers out there. Let's put it out there. It's honest. It's true. They're also supporting the guest worker program that's putting against the undocumented workers in our fields. So, let's not support the guest workers because we need to provide a comprehensive immigration law for thousands of undocumented workers right now. Let me ask you this. I don't know if anybody wants to answer. What is your best guess about the percentage of workers in the fields who are undocumented here? I'll say maybe about a good 85%. How many? 85% of our farm workers throughout the state of California are undocumented. Do people think that's the right number? Yes. All right. So, tell me if I'm right or wrong. But if I'm undocumented, I really have very little legal powers. Somebody, you're undocumented. I can't exploit you. What are you going to do about it? Right. There's nowhere to go. And then, quote, the only union that's supposed to help us has left us out to drive. That's why we're organizing. That's why we're community grassroots organizers that are now taking that job and some of the unions were supposed to do. And that's what we're coming to you. And that's one of the reasons why we're busting our butts just for you, too. For example, today in the morning, I was there with you in San Maria, and I drove like crazy just to be here on time with you. But also, you know what? Thank you. We have the 28th anniversary. We love you. I honestly love you. I went to the car seat. I went to the rally in South Central LA a month and a half ago on my way back. There was a drunk driver who smashed his car against mine and literally tore my car. I've been going to therapy three times a week, but I'm still standing. And I'm still here. And I still got corazón. I still got heart for you. So we love you. I think I... I've got to get going. All right. Who should I talk to? All right. Thank you, gentlemen. All right. My popular demand. Thank you. My name is Salo Santos. I'm a professor at Cal State here at Bakersfield. I'm also from Mexico and I know exactly what this brother is talking about. I would like to inform you since you want to know. Right now throughout the entire Western Pacific region, Triches and Mistecos and Zapoteco Indigenous Mexicans from Oaxaca. That's right. That's right. And they are... You can find them all along the western coast from Washington State and into California and into Baja California. And I want to tell you, Senator Sanders, I came here to ask you this question that this brother said raised. And that is, the people in Washington State have organized themselves into something called Familias Humidas por la Justicia. United Families for Justice. All of the Oaxacanians, all of the indigenous Mistecos and Zapotecos and Triches. They went on strike in 2013 and they're still on strike fighting for their rights and they are not getting justice. Then, just to show you how global this whole thing is, in Baja California, in 2015, last year, 70,000 migrants from Oaxaca went on strike in Baja California in a place called San Quintin and they have been fighting because they get paid $6 a day for 12 to 14-hour day shifts. They get paid $6 to $7 a day. These are the same people from these communities in Oaxaca being exploited by the same company which is called Drisco Company. And finally, our brothers and sisters right here outside Bakersfield blueberry pickers in McFarland, also Oaxacanians, also Triches and Zapotecos and Mistecos, they went on strike a couple weeks ago because the price per piece went from $0.90 per box to $0.60 per box and from April to May and they finally got so fit up and they had support from nobody, they walked out. Now, the UFW has gone up and tried to help. I encourage you to do two things, Senator and that's why I'm here. Number one, endorse the international boycott from Baja California all the way to Washington State The entire western coast right now is asking for an international boycott of Drisco, both in Mexico and in California and in Washington State. And the second thing I want to ask you, Senator is to please raise your voice for a global solution to the immigration issue that takes into account the mobility of labor in our region which no longer can be denied the freedom that capital has to flow back and forth. Thank you. I will look into and I should know this and I don't have a run and roll of the place. Let me look into the Drisco thing. But I am very inclined of half of what you say is accurate. Are you telling me people are working for $6 a day? Yes. In the U.S. 85% of the strong members into the U.S. 3,000 of the American cops in Drisco and Drisco are peddling all this on the different labels. The Mexican pink they are Washington State and they are paying nothing all of which are indigenous workers all of which are documented in all the western coast. It is a complete scandal one corporation screwing everybody. All right. All right. Let me tell you what thank you all for being here and thank you for your presentations you have educated me for a whole lot. I will not forget your love and not forget what you have told me today. Thank you all very, very much.