Hispanic farmers seek redress for years of discrimination

When the Barack Obama administration urged Congress to settle a protracted anti-discrimination lawsuit for 1.25 billion dollars on behalf of African American farmers last week, Lupe Garcia of Las Cruces, New Mexico was paying close attention. Garcia is the lead plaintiff in a similar suit, now 10 years old, filed on behalf of Hispanic farmers. Lupe, his brother and his father lost 626 acres to foreclosure in 1999, a direct result of what he claims were the discriminatory practices of his local farm agency, then known as the Farmers Home Association (FHA), under the auspices of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Unlike in the Black farmers' discrimination suit or a similar one filed on behalf of Native Americans, the Garcia case has not been granted class action status. Why the suit's 81 Hispanic farmers - who hail from Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas and - don't meet the criteria for a class when African Americans and Natives with nearly identical discrimination claims do is unclear. But the Hispanic farmers' requests for this crucial legal status have been repeatedly denied.