Bracero Program

The Bracero Programs (from the Spanish term bracero bɾaˈse.ɾo, meaning "manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms") were the result of a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated on August 4, 1942, when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. For these farmworkers, the agreement guaranteed decent living conditions (sanitation, adequate shelter, and food) and a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour, as well as protections from forced military service, and guaranteed that a part of wages was to be put into a private savings account in Mexico; it also allowed the importation of contract laborers from Guam as a temporary measure during the early phases of World War II. The agreement was extended with the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951 (), enacted as an amendment to the Agricultural Act of 1949 by the United States Congress, which set the official parameters for the Bracero Program until its termination in 1964. A 2018 study published in the American Economic Review found that the termination of the Bracero Program did not raise wages or employment for American-born farm workers. A 2023 study in the American Economic Journal found that the termination of the program had adverse economic effects on American farmers and prompted greater farm mechanization. Temporary agricultural workers started being admitted with H-2 visas under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and starting with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, have been admitted on H-2A visas. The Bracero Program operated as a joint program under the State Department, the Department of Labor, and the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) in the Department of Justice. 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. The program began in Stockton, California in August 1942. The agreement also stated that braceros would not be subject to discrimination such as exclusion from "white" areas.