by Leo Rodriguez
Generations before us would work hand in hand with the Mexican government to insure Mexican labor employees working in the U.S. as seasonal workers were not mistreated, or underpaid, firm contracts were signed.
In the early 1900s, Mexicans poured into San Benito and the RGV, welcomed by farm owners and the railroad, who needed their labor. Until entry rules tightened in 1924, they simply paid a nickel to cross the border and get visas for legal residency.
The majority were here legally, because it was so easy to enter legally, if that makes any sense. The depression era was beginning to take it's toll, U.S. officials tightened visa rules, reducing legal immigration from Mexico to a trickle. They also discussed what to do with those already in the U.S.
The Depression hit the Mexican immigrants just as hard. Along with the job crisis and food shortages that affected all U.S. workers, Mexicans and Mexican Americans had to face an additional threat: deportation. As unemployment swept the U.S., hostility to immigrant workers grew, and the government began a program of repatriating immigrants to Mexico. Immigrants were offered free train rides to Mexico, and some went voluntarily, but many were either tricked or coerced into repatriation, and some U.S. citizens were deported simply on suspicion of being Mexican. All in all, hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants, especially farmworkers, were sent out of the country during the 1930s--many of them the same workers who had been eagerly recruited a decade before.
As you are reading this, keep in mind that the U.S. Border Patrol was not formed until 1924 (I always thought it had been created way earlier).
The creation of the Border Patrol was an event which would have a significant impact on the lives of Mexican workers. Though the public did not immediately view Mexicans as "illegal aliens," the law now stated that undocumented workers were fugitives. With the advent of the Border Patrol, the definition "illegal alien" is born, and many Mexican citizens north of the border are subject to much suspicion.
During and after WWII, the U.S. again courted the Mexican workers, via the "bracero" program. The Mexicans were needed to plant and pick the cotton crops, and assist farmers rebuilding their ranches. In a few short years the Mexicans were once again rounded up & deported, though many managed to avoid the border patrol.
There are solutions to fixing the immigration debate, but unfortunately politicians come to the table determined not to bend or concede on their perspective party's stance.
