[7] This program was intended to fill the labor shortage in agriculture because of the war. [2], The agreement was extended with the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951, enacted as an amendment to the Agricultural Act of 1949 (Public Law 78) by Congress,[3] which set the official parameters for the bracero program until its termination in 1964. June 1945: Three weeks later braceros at Emmett struck for higher wages. College of Washington and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperating, Specialist Record of County Visit, Columbia County, Walter E. Zuger, Assistant State Farm Labor Supervisor, July 21–22, 1943. The Bracero Program was a series of agreements between the United States and Mexico that allowed Mexican laborers, or braceros, to come to the U.S. to work as farm workers. A political activist and physician in California who first learned about the worker’s condition when he treated. Those in power actually showed little concern over the alleged assault. Among the many violations and abuses reported were charges that American growers made Mexican workers pay for food, lodging, tools, and blankets they were supposed to receive without charge. The situation changed with the involvement of the United States in World War II, creating a massive labor shortage in all sectors of the economy with the withdrawal of much of the nation's active labor force into the various armed services. This not only enabled many to send funds home to their families but also had the unintended effect of encouraging illegal immigration after the filling of quotas for official workers in the U.S. In addition to these international events involving governments, there was the personal ongoing problem of racist antipathy against Mexicans that was prevalent throughout the American Southwest. With such a large, inexpensive labor pool at hand, many farmers continued to use these labor-intensive practices. These unions included the National Farm Laborers Union (NFLU), later called the National Agricultural Workers Union (NAWU), headed by Ernesto Galarza, and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), AFL-CIO.

Narrative, July 1944, Rupert, Idaho, Box 52, File: Idaho; Narrative, Oct. 1944, Lincoln, Idaho; all in GCRG224, NA. The Bracero program (from the Spanish term bracero, meaning "manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms") was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated on August 4, 1942, when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. Braceros had no say on any committees, agencies or boards that existed ostensibly to help establish fair working conditions for them. The Bracero Program: Interest Groups and Foreign Policy.

we are called only by numbers." The first braceros were admitted on September 27, 1942, for the sugar-beet harvest season. Today, millions of Mexican Americans trace their families' roots in the US to their fathers' or grandfathers' arrival as braceros. With so many Americans in the military, farmers worried that they would not have enough agricultural labor meet their needs. Why did the bracero program end? Roger Daniels, Prisoners Without Trials: Japanese Americans in World War II (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), p. 74. The Bracero Program was originally intended to help American farms and factories remain productive during World War II. [citation needed], President Truman signed Public Law 78 (which did not include employer sanctions) in July 1951. Although most of the braceros worked in agriculture, some did not. On September 9, 2010 the Smithsonian National Museum of American History opened a bilingual exhibition titled, "Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942–1964." The pattern of Mexican workers working in American fields has not changed much since the beginning of the 20th century. [53] In January 1961, in an effort to publicize the effects of bracero labor on labor standards, the AWOC led a strike of lettuce workers at 18 farms in the Imperial Valley, an agricultural region on the California-Mexico border and a major destination for braceros.[54]. This agreement was renewed again in 1951, during the Korean War. This turn of events contributed to an increase in the number of undocumented workers who were allowed to cross the border into Texas, where they worked without government oversight or written contracts. Only 3,300 ever worked in the fields, and many of them quickly quit or staged strikes because of the poor working conditions, including oppressive heat and decrepit housing. Two strikes in particular should be highlighted for their character and scope: the Japanese-Mexican strike of 1943 in Dayton, Washington[25] and the June 1946 strike of 1000 plus braceros that refused to harvest lettuce and peas in Idaho. While most of the strikes, including the most militant ones like the June 1947 strike of 1000 braceros in and around Nampa, Idaho, ended in defeat, the strikes continued through 1946. In Texas, the program was banned for several years during the mid 1940s due to the discrimination and maltreatment of Mexicans including the various lynchings along the border. Those in power actually showed little concern over the alleged assault. Farmers were especially concerned, and they pressured the federal government to make preparations to ensure an adequate farm labor supply in case of entry into the war. Because of the history of Texas racism against Mexicans and the frequent abuses of workers practiced by Texas growers, the Mexican government refused to allow its citizens to work in Texas under the bracero program. Knowing this difficulty, the Mexican consulate in Salt Lake City, and later the one in Portland, Oregon, encouraged workers to protest their conditions and advocated on their behalf much more than the Mexican consulates did for braceros in the Southwest. [44] Combine all these reasons together and it created a climate where braceros in the Northwest felt they had no other choice, but to strike in order for their voices to be heard. Cited in Gamboa, "Mexican Labor and World War II", p. 80. The first step in this process required that the workers pass a local level selection before moving onto a regional migratory station where the laborers had to pass a number of physical examinations; lastly, at the U.S. reception centers, workers were inspected by health departments, sprayed with DDT and then were sent to contractors that were looking for workers. Idaho Daily Statesman, July 11, 14, 1945. June 1945: Braceros from Caldwell-Boise sugar beet farms struck when hourly wages were .20 cents less than the established rate set by the County Extension Service. They then were returned to the United States, where again they were to be given physical exams, fingerprinted, photographed, and given identification cards that would make them legal immigrants. Violations of the agreement also occurred through the actions of the U.S. government itself. The workers' response came in the form of a strike against this perceived injustice.

Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1961 "Lettuce Farm Strike Part of Deliberate Union Plan". Provides detailed accounts of emigration and immigration policies affecting migrant agricultural workers from Mexico.

Mexican Labor Migration to the United States. Under this pact, the laborers were promised decent living conditions in labor camps, such as adequate shelter, food and sanitation, as well as a minimum wage pay of 30 cents an hour. Data 1951–67 cited in Gutiérrez, David Gregory. Copp, Nelson Gage. Added to this initial source of conflict was the large-scale "repatriation” of Mexicans and Mexican Americans during the Great Depression during the early 1930’s, when Mexican workers were indiscriminately rounde… They saved money, purchased new tools or used trucks, and returned home with new outlooks and with a greater sense of dignity. The program mandated a certain level of wages, housing, food and medical care for the workers (to be paid for by the employers) that kept the standard of living above what many had in Mexico. January–February (exact dates aren’t noted) 1943: In Burlington, Washington braceros strike because farmers were paying higher wages to Anglos than to the braceros doing similar work. The Bracero Program was a guest worker program that ran between the years of 1942 and 1964. Cited in Gamboa, "Mexican Labor and World War II", p. 82. Cited in Gamboa, "Mexican Labor and World War II", p. 84.

After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Mexican workers played an important role in keeping American agriculture productive. Candidate … [42], Another difference is the proximity, or not, to the Mexican border.