October 16, 1998
MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Mexican government is lobbying U.S. Congress to let more foreigners do field work on American farms.
A Mexico City daily reported Monday that diplomats are working in support of a bill proposed by Oregon Sens. Gordon Smith - a Republican - and Ron Wyden - a Democrat - that would give U.S. farmers a steadier stream of legal migrant workers.
In exchange, the farmers would pay workers more and improve their living conditions.
The daily La Jornada quoted an unidentified source in Mexico's foreign ministry as saying that Mexico considers the bill a top priority. A spokesman at the Foreign Ministry confirmed the ministry's position but said no one could comment on it officially.
The Wyden-Smith measure is considered a return to the ``braceros'' program that put immigrants into the fields during World War II and then kicked them out as illegal aliens after the work was done.
Red tape has limited the U.S. government's ``guest worker'' program to welcoming only 24,000 farm laborers each year. That has forced producers to turn to illegal aliens to fill out their crews at the risk of being hit with penalties for immigration violations.
U.S. congressional investigators estimate that 600,000 of the nation's 1.6 million-member farm labor force are illegal immigrants.
Return
to Homepage