Editing Bracero Program (section)

== Braceros in the Railroad Industry ==
In 1942 when the Bracero Program came to be, it was not only agriculture work that was contracted, but also railroad work. Just like braceros working in the fields, Mexican contract workers were recruited to work on the railroads. The [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific railroad]] was having a hard time keeping full-time rail crews on hand. The dilemma of short handed crews prompted the railway company to ask the government permission to have workers come in from Mexico. The railroad version of the Bracero Program carried many similarities to agricultural braceros. It was written that, "The bracero railroad contract would preserve all the guarantees and provisions extended to agricultural workers."<ref name="Gamboa 2016">{{Cite book|last=Gamboa|first=Erasmo|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwn55d|title=Bracero Railroaders: The Forgotten World War II Story of Mexican Workers in the U.S. West|date=2016|publisher=University of Washington Press|jstor=j.ctvcwn55d|isbn=978-0-295-99832-9}}</ref> Only eight short months after agricultural braceros were once again welcomed to work, so were braceros on the railroads. The "Immigration and Naturalization authorized, and the U.S. attorney general approved under the 9th Proviso to Section 3 of the Immigration Act of February 5, 1917, the temporary admission of unskilled Mexican non-agricultural workers for railroad track and maintenance-of-way employment. The authorization stipulated that railroad braceros could only enter the United States for the duration of the war."<ref name="Gamboa 2016"/>

Over the course of the next few months, braceros began coming in by the thousands to work on railroads. Multiple railroad companies began requesting Mexican workers to fill labor shortages. Bracero railroaders were also in understanding of an agreement between the U.S. and Mexico to pay a living wage, and provide adequate food, housing, and transportation. Similarly, to the agricultural braceros, the exploitation of the railroad work braceros went on well into the 1960s.