Editing Bracero Program (section)

== Postwar Policy Shifts and Labor Controversies in the Bracero Program ==
After World War II, American agricultural employers pushed for a renewed Bracero Program to ensure a stable labor force for planting and harvesting crops. During 1948 negotiations, Mexico demanded that the U.S. penalize employers who hired undocumented workers, but this provision was not included in the final legislation.

President Truman signed Public Law 78 (which did not include employer sanctions) in July 1951.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/82nd-congress/senate-bill/984/ |title=S. 984 - Agricultural Act, 1949 Amendment of 1951 |date=July 12, 1951 |series=P.L. 82-78 ~ 65 Stat. 119 |publisher=Congress.gov}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/4729041.1951.001.umich.edu/page/388/ |title=Special Message to the Congress on the Employment of Agricultural Workers from Mexico - July 13, 1951 |last=Truman |first=Harry S. |date=July 13, 1951 |website=Internet Archive |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=National Archives and Records Service |pages=389–393}}</ref> Soon after it was signed, United States negotiators met with Mexican officials to prepare a new bilateral agreement. This agreement made it so that the U.S. government were the guarantors of the contract, not U.S. employers. The braceros could not be used as replacement workers for U.S. workers on strike; however, the braceros were not allowed to go on strike or renegotiate wages. The agreement set forth that all negotiations would be between the two governments.<ref name="Calavita-1992" />

A year later, the [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952]] was passed by the [[82nd United States Congress]] whereas [[Presidency of Harry S. Truman|President Truman]] vetoed the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House]] immigration and nationality legislation on June 25, 1952.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/4729044.1952.001.umich.edu/page/440/ |title=Veto of Bill To Revise the Laws Relating to Immigration, Naturalization, and Nationality - June 25, 1952 |last=Truman |first=Harry S. |date=June 25, 1952 |website=Internet Archive |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=National Archives and Records Service |pages=441–447}}</ref> The H.R. 5678 [[Bill (law)|bill]] conceded a [[Classes of offenses under United States federal law|federal felony]] for knowingly concealing, harboring, or shielding a [[foreign national]] or [[Illegal immigration|illegal immigrant]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/82nd-congress/house-bill/5678/ |title=H.R. 5678 - Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 |date=June 27, 1952 |series=P.L. 82-414 ~ 66 Stat. 163 |publisher=Congress.gov}}</ref> However the Texas Proviso stated that employing unauthorized workers would not constitute as "harboring or concealing" them. This also led to the establishment of the [[H-2A visa]] program,<ref>{{Cite web |title = H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers |url = https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-2a-temporary-agricultural-workers |website = USCIS |access-date = February 23, 2016 }}</ref> which enabled laborers to enter the U.S. for temporary work. There were a number of hearings about the United States–[[Mexican migration|Mexico migration]], which overheard complaints about Public Law 78 and how it did not adequately provide them with a reliable supply of workers. Simultaneously, unions complained that the braceros' presence was harmful to U.S. workers.<ref name="migration.ucdavis.edu" />

The outcome of this meeting was that the United States ultimately got to decide how the workers would enter the country by way of reception centers set up in various Mexican states and at the United States border. At these reception centers, potential braceros had to pass a series of examinations. 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, stripped & sprayed with [[DDT]] a dangerous pesticide.<ref name="migration.ucdavis.edu" /><ref>{{cite web |title=The Bath Riots: Indignity Along the Mexican Border |website=[[NPR]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708012409/https://www.npr.org/2006/01/28/5176177/the-bath-riots-indignity-along-the-mexican-border |archive-date=2023-07-08 |url-status=live |url=https://www.npr.org/2006/01/28/5176177/the-bath-riots-indignity-along-the-mexican-border}}</ref>

They were then sent to contractors that were looking for workers.<ref name="migration.ucdavis.edu" /> Operations were primarily run by the [[United States Public Health Service]] (USPHS) along with other military personnel. Braceros frequently dealt with harassment from these officials and could be kept for extended periods of time in the examination rooms.<ref name=":0" /> These rooms held as many as 40 men at a time, and migrants would have to wait 6 or more hours to be examined.<ref name=":0" /> According to first hand accounts, personnel would often process 800 to 1600 braceros at a time and, on occasion, upwards of 3100.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Molina |first=Natalia |date=2011 |title=Borders, Laborers, and Racialized Medicalization Mexican Immigration and US Public Health Practices in the 20th Century |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=101 |issue=6 |pages=1024–1031 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2010.300056 |pmid=21493932 |pmc=3093266 }}</ref> The invasive health procedures and overcrowded processing centers would continue to persist throughout the program's 22-year tenure.<ref name=":0" />

To address the overwhelming amount of undocumented migrants in the United States, the Immigration and Naturalization Service launched [[Operation Wetback]] in June 1954, as a way to repatriate illegal laborers back to Mexico. The illegal workers who came over to the states at the initial start of the program were not the only ones affected by this operation, there were also massive groups of workers who felt the need to extend their stay in the U.S. well after their labor contracts were terminated.<ref name="migration.ucdavis.edu" />

In the first year, over a million Mexicans were sent back to Mexico; 3.8 million were repatriated when the operation was finished. The criticisms of unions and churches made their way to the U.S. Department of Labor, as they lamented that the braceros were negatively affecting the U.S. [[farmworker]]s in the 1950s. In 1955, the AFL and CIO spokesman testified before a Congressional committee against the program, citing lack of enforcement of pay standards by the Labor Department.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://archives.texasobserver.org/issue/1955/03/28#page=7 |title=Labor Groups Oppose Bracero Law Features |date=March 28, 1955 |website=Archives.TexasObserver.org |publisher=Texas Observer |page=7 |access-date=2020-07-06}}</ref> The Department of Labor eventually acted upon these criticisms and began closing numerous bracero camps in 1957–1958, they also imposed new minimum wage standards and in 1959 they demanded that American workers recruited through the Employment Service be entitled to the same wages and benefits as the braceros.<ref>{{Cite journal |title = Texas and the Bracero Program, 1942–1947 |jstor = 4492180 |journal = Pacific Historical Review |date = August 1, 1963 |pages = 251–64 |volume = 32 |issue = 3 |doi = 10.2307/4492180 |first = Otey M. |last = Scruggs }}</ref>