mr. rodriguez.hank you very much. , andng member lofgren members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. my name is arturo rodriguez, president of the united farmworkers. i have the honor of serving farmworkers in our nation. we appreciate the chance to speak today on behalf of farmworkers throughout united states. our broken immigration system threatens our nations food supply. today. today, we have farmworkers hope -- forced to work in the shadows of society, in difficult conditions in farms around the country at great aroundges -- and forms a crow the country have great difficulty. members of both political parties are confronting the question of how to fix our broken immigration system. the urgency of the moment requires a straightforward analysis of the options for us. in that vein, hr 1773 false far thet of the challenging -- challenges facing american agriculture and the nation's food supply. hr 1773 bears a much closer resemblance to the horrific program of the 1

mr. rodriguez. can you hear me? >> hello. >> mr. rodriguez taqueria me? hello? >> man, we're listening.e go ahead. i want to say thank you very much for your buck. i really admire you. the fact that you survived alter your childhood and managed to get over all the things you're dealing with. i really wanted to set thank you so much. my husband who is deceased was a return to seven years. he was an alcoholic. he is just amazing. i think your in the same category as him because he was a really great man. i just want to thank you you are now helping others. you are real inspiration. thank you very much. >> i appreciate that. i guess the message is that it is possible to overcome these things. it's just all be easy, we have to recognize that there is a way to get through all the addiction in the rage in knowing how to turn it into art, beauty, poetry, something amazing, even if your mechanic map you can turn that into an art. people have to of turn their pain and will listen to something that turns out to be beautiful and positive and impact to and the community. thank you for that because

mr. rodriguez. as did senator feinstein. >> well, thank you, chairman leahy and ranking member grassley and members of the subcommittee. thank you for the opportunity to testify today. my name is arturo rodriguez and i have the honor of being president of the united farmworkers of america. tomorrow will mark the 20th year since our founder, caesar chavez passed away. we think it is very appropriate that we are here today on this historic day to talk about the future of american agriculture. i wanted to give a special thank you to senators feinstein, who we have worked with for years to solve this problem and senator hatch unfortunately couldn't be with us here today with whom we worked very closely with over the last several months that helped us and in forging this agreement and bringing together and dealing with the crisis that we face in american agriculture. and that we'll hopefully, this will be a able to provide some stability in the years to come. last week, both chuck conner to my left and i