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On Friday June 30th, Vermont farmworkers Esau and Yesenia were set free after another community-powered campaign.  The Border Patrol arrest of Yesenia and Esau -- just hours after they led a 13-mile march calling on Ben & Jerry’s to stand up for the human rights of dairy workers in its supply chain -- generated a mass response of outrage. Three rallies across Vermont, national headlines, 1,600 emails to ICE, dozens of letters of support, and over 50 supporters chanting outside the immigration courthouse in Boston were all decisive factors persuading the judge to release the two on bail.

The release of Yesenia and Esau came one day before Migrant Justice leaders Enrique “Kike” Balcazar and Zully Palacios, both targeted and arrested by ICE just months ago, received the National Education Association’s (NEA) distinguished “César Chávez Civil and Human Rights Award” on behalf of Migrant Justice.  Zully and Kike accepted the award at the NEA’s annual conference to a standing ovation from over a thousand teachers from across the country.

The NEA, the nation’s largest union, also honored Migrant Justice with this newly released video, as this powerful group of educators pledged their support to stand with Migrant Justice in its campaign to get Ben & Jerry’s to practice what it preaches by joining the Milk with Dignity Program without further delay.

“César Chávez notably said ‘If you want to remember me, organize.’ Migrant Justice embodies his spirit and carries his torch forward,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “Migrant Justice is organizing farmworkers to address the challenges they face and bringing about systemic change to improve and advance their fundamental human rights. They are a national model for their cutting-edge human rights organizing and concrete victories. Migrant Justice motivates us, inspires us through their deeds and actions, and embodies what is just and right about César Chávez.”

10/3/17 Update: 

Migrant Justice and Ben & Jerry's sign historic agreement!

Check out this must-see 3 minute video of the March for Milk with Dignity!

In the early morning light, at 7am on Saturday June 17th, nearly 150 farmworkers and supporters gathered in front of the Vermont State House gearing up for what would be an historic day. Nearly two years to the day when Ben & Jerry’s made its still-unfulfilled public commitment to Milk with Dignity, Farmworker organizer Enrique “Kike” Balcazar kicked off the action:

“Today, we are marching 13 miles to Ben & Jerry’s to make sure they make good on their promise they made two years ago to join and implement the Milk with Dignity Program, because our human rights cannot wait a single day longer.”

Read more to see photos from the march!

10/3/17 Update: 

Migrant Justice and Ben & Jerry's sign historic agreement!

"The first time I saw my dad after eight years apart, I couldn’t believe how much he had aged. When he had left our home in Mexico to come to the United States, he was still a young man. After eight years of toiling on a Vermont dairy farm—sending money home so my siblings and I could go to school—his face looked weathered, worn, and tired."

You have to check out this must-read history of the Milk with Dignity campaign and Vermont farmworker's fight for human rights, written by former dairy worker and community leader Enrique "Kike" Balcazar!  Now on the front page of popular food magazine Civil Eats, Kike's essay charts his path from coming to Vermont at 17 years old to join his father on a dairy farm, to marching on the Ben & Jerry's factory tomorrow, to demand that the company make good on its two-year-old commitment to join dairy worker's Milk with Dignity program.

This May Day, hundreds came together in Burlington for a beautiful and powerful “March for Dignity.” The action coincided with marches, rallies, and strikes across the country and around the world on International Workers' Day.  The streets echoed with chants calling on Ben & Jerry’s to make good on its June 19, 2015 commitment to source its milk in compliance with the the human rights of dairy workers: “Get up! Get down! Milk with Dignity’s comin’ to town!”

Outside company’s flagship store, Migrant Justice leader David Diaz called the ice cream maker to task for two years of delay in joining the Milk with Dignity program: 

“Listen up Ben and Jerry’s because the people are rising up. I am a dairy worker and I know the conditions in the industry; I know what it is to suffer in your supply chain. Thanks to the hard work of farmworkers -- the workers who are putting the cream in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream -- you are making a delicious product sold around the world. But it is a product made without dignity."

Marchers delivered thousands of postcards to the company, taped together in a 150-yard-long chain that extended for a full city block, demanding that Ben & Jerry’s sign the Milk with Dignity program.

Read the full story and see more pictures here!

This Tuesday April 4th, thousands of customers waiting in line outside Ben & Jerry's scoop shops during the company's famed Free Cone Day got their ice cream with a bitter dose of truth.

At more than 10 scoop shops around the country -- from Nashville, to Naples, to New York -- dairy workers and supporters pulled the mask off the corporation's socially responsible marketing to expose the conditions faced by workers putting the cream in Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Enrique Balcazar, recently freed from prison after being targeted by deportation agents for his outspoken leadership, spoke at the factory store in Waterbury:

I have worked on dairy farms across the state, just like my mother and father before me, and I know better than anyone the conditions that we workers face.  I would work from 3am through the day and night, oftentimes without 8 hours of consecutive rest, seven days a week.  Nearly half of us don't even make minimum wage! That is why we are here today, calling on Ben & Jerry's to make good on its commitment to join the Milk with Dignity program, ensuring respect for the human rights of the workers who milk their cows.

Wilmar Santiz, a dairy worker and member of Migrant Justice's Farmworker Coordinating Committee, told customers in Burlington, VT: "We are here today demanding that Ben & Jerry's join the Milk with Dignity program. We invite everyone to unite with us -- because the time to sign is now!"

Thousands show support for detained human rights leaders in Vermont

Immigrant leaders of Migrant Justice targeted by ICE for arrest

Burlington, VT. Agents with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have arrested three immigrant members of the Vermont-based human rights organization Migrant Justice within the past week.

Jose Enrique “Kike” Balcazar Sanchez, 24, and Zully Palacios Rodriguez, 23, were surrounded by four undercover ICE vehicles soon after leaving the Migrant Justice office in Burlington on Friday afternoon. Migrant Justice organizers arrived on the site of the arrest in time to see the two being loaded into separate vans and driven away.

“They are targeting our community’s leaders,” said Migrant Justice organizer Abel Luna.

The detention came two days after agents arrested dairy worker Cesar Alexis Carrillo Sanchez, 23, outside the Chittenden County courthouse Wednesday morning. At the time, Mr. Carrillo, known as Alex, was accompanied by his wife, Lymarie Deida, a U.S. citizen.  The two have a four-year-old daughter together.

Said Ms. Deida of her husband’s arrest: “When they arrested Alex, they took away a father, a husband, a human being.”

Rally to #FreeEnrique #FreeZully Saturday 3/18 12pm, Church St. and Pearl St.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

...is the wall between the police and Trump’s deportation machine.”

Vermonters who support immigrant rights are making their voices heard. Last week, a dozen towns across the state voted to approve sanctuary resolutions declaring their solidarity with immigrants and refugees. And politicians are paying attention.

Just yesterday, the Vermont House of Representatives voted preliminary approval of Governor Scott’s immigration bill (S.79), legislation already unanimously passed by the Senate. Though backed by a worthy sentiment, the bill is more symbol than substance. It focuses on potential actions that the Trump administration could take but does nothing to stop Vermont police practices of colluding with federal authorities to deport immigrants living and working in the state.

Aquí estamos, y no nos vamos.  Migrant Justice leader Enrique Balcazar led a crowd of nearly 1,000 in Burlington on Tuesday night in chanting this refrain.  "We are here, and we're not leaving."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports, some Vermont agriculture officials are meeting to discuss how to replace deported dairy workers, including by "training inmates to do the work." To this we say: Aquí estamos, y no nos vamos.

Donald Trump's executive orders last week shook us hard but did not break our resolve.  We stand with our Muslim sisters and brothers targeted by Trump's ban, because we won´t be fooled by white nationalism masquerading as national security.  We stand with communities on the Southern border fighting the wall, because we know that the only thing a wall will bring is more death on the border, as the journey north for those fleeing poverty and violence becomes more perilous still.  And we stand against the criminalization and deportation of our community, because we know that migration is a human right, and you can't trump human rights.  Aquí estamos, y no nos vamos.

Migrant Justice's groundbreaking organizing for human rights and food justice made headlines time and time again throughout the year.  Both locally and nationally, Vermont immigrant farmworkers shaped the story on worker's rights, deportations, the dairy industry, the election, and sanctuary cities, to name just a few of the issues covered in 2016.  Read more for a selection of headlines that tell the story of Migrant Justice in 2016.