Amid the Great Depression in the 1930s, environmental conditions worsened when the Dust Bowl halted agriculture in the Great Plains, forcing around 2.5 million people to migrate. Many headed towards western states like California where, prior to the 1930s, a mix of seasonal workers–mostly Mexican, Filipino and Japanese–handled cotton, fruits and vegetables.
The railroad industry had tens of thousands of Mexican workers who accounted for almost two-thirds of the track labor force in the Southwest, Central Plains and Midwest, according to “Traqueros: Mexican Railroad Workers In The United States.”
In a panic during the Depression, the U.S. government deported and coercively repatriated up to 1 million people to Mexico, despite many being first-generation Americans. Many believed Mexican workers were taking the scarce resources needed for Americans during the Depression.
U.S. policy towards Mexican immigrants shifted from exemption, to deportation, to desperation after the country joined WWII in 1941.
By mid-1942, an estimated 2.8 million agricultural workers left the fields for military service or industry jobs that supported the war effort. The loss of Japanese farmers sent to internment camps under Executive Order 9066 and an increasing food demand for troops amplified the decrease in farm labor.
The U.S. found a solution with Mexico, which declared war on the Axis powers in July 1942 after a German U-boat sank a Mexican tanker, killing 13 crewmen. Later that year, the Mexican Farm Labor Program established the Bracero Program.
Through the program, millions of “braceros,” or “ones who work using their arms,” entered the U.S. for short-term contracted work in agriculture and on railroads.
The Mexican government hoped these men would come back to Mexico with new agricultural skills and money to enhance the economy.
Interested men would go to one of eight recruitment centers in Mexico where a prime requirement for consideration was prior farm experience. Recruiters looked for calluses on hands or agricultural education.
If they passed this screening in Mexico, they would be transported to U.S. border reception centers operated by the U.S. Department of Labor with assistance from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and Public Health Service (PHS).
The last standing Bracero reception center is the Rio Vista farm in El Paso, TX. Once the braceros arrived at Rio Vista, PHS workers examined, stripped and disinfected them with delousing powder and lindane. Then they went to INS for photographs and fingerprinting. Afterwards, they met with employers to bargain employment contracts and waited for transportation to work sites.
Most braceros were sent to work in Texas and California in cramped train cars.
Former agreements and protocols set between the U.S. and Mexico attempted to protect braceros. According to the Bracero History Archive, braceros were supposed to receive “guaranteed payment of at least the prevailing area wage received by native workers; employment for three-fourths of the contract period; adequate, sanitary, and free housing; decent meals at reasonable prices; occupational insurance at employer’s expense; and free transportation back to Mexico at the end of the contract.”
However, they experienced poor housing, low pay, exposure to deadly chemicals, low-quality food, endured back-breaking work 10 to 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week and discrimination from locals.
“U.S. policy towards Mexican immigrants shifted from exemption, to deportation, to desperation after the country joined WWII in 1941.”
After WWII, more recruitment occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border, cutting transportation costs and government oversight.
The Bracero Program ended in 1964 due to intense pressure from unions, mechanization of the agricultural industry and public awareness of inadequate working and living conditions, according to the Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas at El Paso and the Bracero Archive.
Over the course of 22 years, the program granted over 4 million bracero contracts, many men participating multiple times. Just as many apprehensions of Mexican men who curbed the bracero contract process and worked illegally occurred.
Today–despite the program’s termination, annual temporary Mexican labor is estimated at 500,000 H2 visas. Mexicans are granted 90% of H2-A visas for agricultural work and 65-70% of H2-B visas for “low-skilled” work.
According to the UCLA International Institute, “the H2 visa regime — which amounts to a Bracero II program, albeit on a smaller scale–is operated entirely by the U.S.”
