Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation on August 26, 2026, declaring that date as "California Farmworker Day," honoring the state's agricultural workers and their contributions to California's food production.
The proclamation traces farmworkers' history from the Bracero era through contemporary labor organizing. It credits leaders including Larry Itliong, Dolores Huerta, and Philip Vera Cruz with transforming the labor movement and securing workplace protections. The proclamation noted that farmworkers today continue working through "extreme heat and difficult conditions."
Newsom's proclamation directly addressed what he characterized as aggressive federal immigration enforcement. "The federal government targets and terrorizes farmworkers and farmworker communities with aggressive federal immigration actions," the proclamation states. Despite intimidation and fear, California farmworkers "continue to show the resilience that generations before them carried into our fields, our communities, and our labor movements," according to the proclamation.
Newsom outlined California's stated commitments, including protecting workers regardless of immigration status, strengthening workplace protections, connecting communities with legal assistance, and pushing the federal government to provide farmworkers a pathway to citizenship.