| BEWARE OF GUEST-WORKER PROGRAMS |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Tuesday, February 17 2004 |
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| For those who respect and value the advice of the elderly, here's a piece of advice coming from elderly Mexican workers -- most of them in their 70s and 80s -- that relates directly to President Bush's immigration proposal: Beware of the promises of a guest-worker program.
These older folks should know. They were part of the original bracero program, which brought more than 4 million Mexican workers to the United States from 1942 to 1964. These temporary laborers became the backbone of U.S. agriculture during and after World War II. They picked cotton, harvested fruits and vegetables, and did all the other backbreaking work required of them on U.S. farms.
Under an agreement signed by the U.S. and Mexican governments in 1942, the braceros had 10 percent of their wages withheld from them. The money was supposed to have been put into a collective savings fund by the U.S. employers for the workers' retirement. More than half a century later, the ex-braceros are still waiting to see their money.
Some bracero activists claim that the money deposited by the temporary workers through the years would have grown to $150 million by now. Mysteriously -- or, many would say, not so mysteriously -- the cash disappeared. The workers -- most of them poor Mexicans -- were forced to return to the same poverty-stricken conditions they left when they signed up for the bracero program. The U.S. government says the matter is in the hands of the courts; the Mexican government says it doesn't know where the money is.
Only a small fraction of the original braceros are still alive. Some estimates put the number at 20,000 or fewer. But those who are still around have stepped up their decades-old protests in Mexico and the United States for their back pay. Hundreds of former braceros protested in front of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City in recent days, and dozens rode horseback into President Vicente Fox's ranch in the state of Guanajuato. Smaller protests have been held in California.
Their renewed call for justice is fueled by President Bush's proposal for another guest-worker program to meet the needs of U.S. companies in search of cheap labor, and potential immigrants looking for work in the United States.
The president's immigration proposal calls for a pension fund for temporary workers. The money would be given back upon their departure and would conceivably be invested in the workers' native economies, in hopes of benefiting poor countries and encouraging potential illegal immigrants to stay home. Sounds good, but the same thing was told to the braceros 61 years ago -- and those folks are still waiting for their cash.
The president's plan -- seen by many as a way to win over Hispanic voters -- has not been well-received by Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike. A CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll showed that 55 percent of Americans oppose the plan. A survey of Latinos by pollster Sergio Bendixen found Hispanics split, with 45 percent supporting the Bush plan and 45 percent opposing it. If, however, the plan included legalization -- which it does not -- a whopping 85 percent of Hispanics would support it.
The poll findings demonstrate how Hispanics would like to give undocumented immigrants who have lived in this country for years a chance to legalize their immigration status for themselves and their families. They are not looking for a new guest-worker program with another pension proposal that might mysteriously disappear, the way the bracero money vanished into thin air. |
