Modern-day Braceros: The United States has 450,000 guestworkers in low-wage jobs and doesnt need mo

[Omaha Steve]

Posted March 31, 2017 at 12:01 am by Daniel Costa

On César Chávez Day, lost in all the news about the Trump administration’s criminalization and scapegoating of immigrants and attempts to withhold federal funds from cities with policies that protect immigrants, are the 450,000 low-wage-earning migrant workers employed in the United States through the H-2A, H-2B, and J-1 visa temporary foreign worker programs. Many of the workers in these temporary visa programs are in a precarious situation and vulnerable to abuse and retaliation at the hands of employers and their agents.

These “guestworkers” often arrive in the United States in debt, and are tied to and controlled by their employers. Research shows guestworkers are often paid lower wages than similarly situated U.S. workers, and earn wages similar to those of undocumented immigrant workers. This is reminiscent of the Bracero Program—a large guestworker program in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s that admitted hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers to work temporarily on U.S. farms and in other low-wage occupations—and which César Chávez fought against. Chávez knew that exploited, indentured, and underpaid workers would degrade labor standards for all workers in the United States, including immigrants. After scandals, political pressure, and President John F. Kennedy campaigning against it, the program was terminated in 1964.

Sadly, America has not learned its lesson. The United States is repeating an historical mistake, once again admitting large numbers of guestworkers in low-wage occupations. With the possibility looming that the Trump administration will reduce enforcement and oversight in guestworker programs—which will be further exacerbated if Trump’s proposed 21 percent budget cuts to the Department of Labor (DOL) are enacted—the United States may once again face scandals like the one where the bodies of guestworkers who died in a traffic accident were not immediately claimed, because farm labor contractors and agricultural growers argued over who their employer was.

A snapshot of today’s low-wage guestworker programs

FULL story: http://www.epi.org/blog/modern-day-braceros-the-united-states-has-450000-guestworkers-in-low-wage-jobs/

EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.

[MineralMan]

1. I grew up in a small citrus-growing town in California

during the bracero era. The camps they had for those workers were pretty awful. More like prisons than living quarters for valued workers. It was not a good time in my small home town at all. The braceros were pretty much kept out of town, except for certain times. They were bused to the local Catholic Church for a separate Mass on Sundays, and could only shop in town at specific times, and in supervised groups.

There were company stores in the camps, and most of the workers never got out of debt to them. Most of the money they earned was sent back to Mexico, supposedly, although I always wondered how much of it got there.

Everyone knew about those conditions and how those Mexican workers were treated, but looked away, since they got the oranges and lemons picked at a low cost.

In high school, I worked for a few months picking oranges, and got to meet some of them. My Spanish was pretty good, so we could talk during breaks and at lunch. I learned a great deal from those workers.

It was not a shining period in American agricultural history, by any means.

[Omaha Steve]

3. Thanks for posting

[ghostsinthemachine]

2. The orange shitgibbon employs

Many guest workers. In fact, he has numerous occasions, hired them over US born workers.

There are a LOT of highly paid guest workers as well, in the tech field. My friends have trained them to take their jobs.