8-6-2018
LYNDEN, Wash. — Activists walked from Lynden to Sumas Sunday in a so-called “March for Dignity,” one year after an H-2A farmworker from Mexico died.
The H-2A program allows citizens from 83 countries to contract with farms for a harvest season or more, and is heavily regulated by the federal Department of Labor.
A 28-year-old farmworker, who was diabetic, fell ill while working for Sarbanand Farms in Sumas and later died in Seattle where it was determined he died of natural causes, unrelated to his work.
Activist group Community to Community, which is suing Sarbanand, rejects that ruling and held a “People’s Tribunal” in Sumas after Sunday’s march demanding justice for the farmworker.
Activist group Save Family Farming says these repeated claims are not only false, but harmful to local farms, with Sarbanand now opting out of the H-2A program and transitioning to mechanized harvesting, cutting many jobs.