US-Mexico Leaders Float Idea of Guest Worker Program to Address Illegal Immigration Jude Webber - The Financial Times
go to original July 8, 2017

'Local workers' won't do this dirty job (CNN)

Donald Trump and Enrique Peña Nieto advanced the debate on tackling illegal immigration by floating the idea of a 21st century version of the Bracero guest worker program under which millions of Mexican worked American farms from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

“One idea which was not on the agenda was to explore the possibility of granting a new mechanism for migration for farm workers, so that Mexican [agricultural] laborers working in the US could enter and leave legally,” Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said.



He gave no details, but the idea sounded like a revamped Bracero Program, which ran from 1942-64, under which millions of Mexican laborers worked arduous agricultural jobs in the US, initially because of a fear that World War Two would lead to a shortage of US farm labor.

Ironically, the demise of the Bracero Program heralded the rise of Mexico as a manufacturing power – something that has caused frictions with Mr Trump who has leaned on US companies not to relocate factories south of the border.

Read the rest at The Financial Times

Related: Mexico Government Says NAFTA Renegotiation to Start on Aug 16 (Reuters)

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