Bracero Program

Bracero is a Spanish word that means “hired hand” and comes from the word brazo or “arm.” The term bracero was generally used to refer to Mexican contract laborers working in the United States. Beginning on August 4, 1942, and authorized by Congress shortly thereafter, the U.S. government formally operated the Bracero Program, a federal guest-worker program designed to provide low-wage, temporary immigrant labor for agriculturalists and for the railroads—two industries that had grown accustomed to Depression-era wages and had a history of reliance on migrant and immigrant workers. Although the program was intended to be a temporary measure that would be ended after the war, strong lobbying on the part of California agriculture, combined with U.S. government permissiveness and the weakening of the Mexican government after the war, contributed to the program's continuation for more than two decades. Roughly 5 million braceros were employed under the program over the 22 years of its operation. The Bracero Program was, and continues to be, heavily criticized by immigrant and human rights groups as well as by labor organizations. Its demise can be linked, in part, with the 1962 founding of the United Farm Workers by Dolores Huerta and César Chávez and the activism of its predecessors, the National Farm Labor Union and the National Agricultural Workers Union. As recently as 2007, critics of President George W. Bush's immigration legislation proposals referred to the temporary guest worker provisions as a modern-day version of the Bracero Program.

Following a wave of deportations during the Great Depression, gradual economic recovery led to increased immigration from Mexico. Some of the roughly 500,000 Mexican workers who had been deported returned, along with many others. Workers were also recruited from the Caribbean, with Florida's cane fields being their primary destination. In the case of agriculture, the wartime economy and deployment of citizen workers, especially in states such as California, Texas, and Florida, allowed many farm laborers to find year-round employment in shipyards and factories. The resulting competition for workers among industries and agriculture presented a unique opportunity for both farm workers and labor organizations to demand higher wages and worker protections. In response, agribusiness lobbied Congress, arguing that labor shortages were causing economic ruin, particularly in the Southwest. Farm employers had been requesting permission from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to import Mexican contract labor for years without success. In the spring of 1942, however, the INS formed a committee to [Page 56]consider the question of labor importation. The result of their efforts was the drafting and signing of the bilateral agreement known as the Bracero Accords. The agreement between the United States and Mexico allowed the importation of Mexican temporary workers under U.S. government supervision, with the Mexican government bargaining on behalf of contract workers. Labor standards for bracero contracts were established by the accords, but they were not routinely enforced or observed, especially when control of the program was given over to the employers.

The Bracero Accords were revised in the months following agreement, and a final version was released in April 1943. According to the formal agreement, wage standards for braceros were to be equivalent to the wages earned by domestic workers in similar employment. The minimum wage was set at 30 cents per hour, and a subsistence wage of $3 per day was to be paid if braceros were unemployed for more than a quarter of the contract period. The U.S. and Mexican governments agreed that Mexican contract workers would not engage in U.S. military service or be employed to replace or reduce the wages of domestic workers. Ironically, many of the provisions of the agreement promised laborers the same sanitary and housing conditions enjoyed by domestic farm workers, who had been routinely omitted from U.S. labor legislation guaranteeing basic standards and protections on such matters. In addition to wage and workplace guarantees, the Mexican negotiators initially required that employers in Texas be excluded from contracting braceros because of the history of discrimination against Mexican workers in Texas. In fact, one of the general provisions of the revised bracero agreement stated that Mexicans entering the United States as Bracero Program workers, in accordance with an executive order, shall not suffer discriminatory acts of any kind. Additional guarantees included transportation and repatriation, as well as a prohibition against the employment of minors under the age of 14 years. Regular violations and abuses of workers' rights and guarantees, however, quickly tarnished the program's reputation.

...