HISPANIC FARMERS TO ADMINISTRATION: STOP DISCRIMINATION NOW Anger and Frustration for Hispanic Farmers – Former Congressman de la Garza Asks President Obama to Intervene

The class action lawsuit, known as “Garcia v. (Glickman, Veneman, and now, Vilsack) has been crying out for resolution since it was first filed in October 2000. Farmers have literally died waiting for the discrimination by the Department of Agriculture the lawsuit describes to end and for the loan money, easily available to Anglo farmers, to be made available to them.

In a recent court hearing, the Department of Justice attorneys, despite the admission by the Department of Agriculture of pervasive discrimination, stated categorically that they were not interested in trying to settle this case.  Instead they sought to throw roadblocks at the victims of the discrimination.  They asked the Court to send the cases back to their home districts in six states to litigate individually, a move which effectively could end the Hispanic farmer’s quest for a fair settlement of their discrimination claims. The judge rejected the Government’s move.

In requesting a 60 day stay to discuss settlement, Howrey lawyer Alan Wiseman said, “we want (the stay) …so there is no irreparable harm to them (the plaintiff farmers) while we see if we can’t bring this to an appropriate resolution.” Mr. Wiseman pointed out to the Court that the Department of Agriculture has “repeatedly admitted broad scale discrimination against Hispanic farmers, and (now) we have the Department of Justice … (suggesting that we) send these cases back to six different states…that sounds neither efficient nor fair.”

This latest setback to the case comes just days after Former House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Kika de la Garza, sent a strongly worded “Open Letter to President Obama” asking him to address the ongoing discrimination against Hispanic farmers.

“DOJ’s refusal to entertain settlement discussions is totally at odds with the clearly expressed will of Congress and irreconcilable with Secretary Vilsack’s repeatedly stated desire to settle all the pending lawsuits,” Congressman de la Garza wrote. “Moreover, it is simply untenable logically, legally, morally or politically that four minority groups can suffer the identical discrimination from the same federal agency and yet only one of the four groups be compensated on a class-wide basis.”  The black farmers have received more than $2.25BN in settlements to date.

Congressman de la Garza called on the President to end all discrimination now. “President Obama, you are in a unique position to end once and for all USDA’s all-too-well deserved reputation as “the last plantation” and to bring overdue accountability and transparency to the USDA-administered farm credit and non-credit farm benefit programs,” the Congressman wrote.

“This latest response from the Department of Justice attorneys would seem to both delay and deny justice,” Mr. Wiseman noted after the hearing

Lupe Garcia, the named plaintiff in the case and a farmer in Las Cruces, NM, said, “During this Congressional Recess, we ask Hispanic farmers and interested parties to bring this matter to the attention of their local Congressmen.  There is no place for this discrimination within the operations of the US Government. We will do everything possible to make sure that the Administration hears the will of the people in this sad and disheartening case,” Garcia added.

Kate Casey
Kate Casey Public Relations
(949)723-0520 Office
kate@katecasey.com“

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