GREENFIELD, California—Carrying eagle flags of the United Farm Workers union, and holding signs saying, “No to Racism,” hundreds of farm workers mobilized April 27 for a meeting of the city council here to protest racist comments about immigrant workers made at a previous city council meeting and in the local press.

Workers from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, many who speak the indigenous Triqui and Mixtec languages, make up one-third of the workforce in Greenfield. They have been singled out in the attacks, blamed for crime, low school performance, and littering in the town. Laura Caballero, a farm worker, urged council members to continue support of a resolution, passed in 2001, stating that immigration police should be barred from coming into the town unannounced. Those spearheading the attacks on immigrants have called for repeal of the resolution.

—BETSEY STONE