Where Are The Bracero Payments?
The “braceros” were a huge group of Mexicans allowed into the United States on special work visas between 1942 and 1964 to allow Mexican workers to replace Americans who had entered WWII. Most of the braceros worked in agriculture but many others found work in construction and even in manufacturing facilities.
The US government withheld 10% of each worker’s income for purposes of Social Security benefits, then turned that money over to the Mexican government for future payment to the braceros. What do you think happened to all that money?
That’s right, it disappeared.
After years of demanding their money, and during the Fox administration, someone, somewhere, finally thought to make an official inquiry to the USA as to the money’s likely whereabouts. Of course, the US said it had sent the money to Mexico.
The initial reaction from the Fox government was, unfortunately and very publicly, “We have no record of any such money being sent to us by the Gringos.” That was a mistake. If anything can be said for the American bureaucracy, it has records.
The money had all been transferred over time from US banks to the Mexican Banco de Crédito Agrícola de México, now called Financiera Rural.
The Fox government announced in 2005 that, indeed, there had been some 5000 braceros in the program and it would pay the money to any still left alive. The US government said that, uh, no, it was 5,000,000. The Fox accountants went back to their abacuses and finally determined that the Mexican government owed 38,000 pesos each to some 200,000 to 250,000 still living braceros. The families of deceased braceros were, er, SOL.
The Mexican House of Deputies approved this 38,000 peso payment to each of the estimated 200-250 thousand braceros in April, 2006. The measure has been hung up in the Senate ever since. The argument is over just how many braceros there are. The Deputies approved a measure to pay the money to 200-250 thousand braceros for a total of somewhere between 7.6 billion and 9.5 billion pesos. The Secretaría of Gobernación can only count 47,000 braceros able to fully document their participation in the program.
The reasons for that are two-fold. First, the Mexican government never bothered to inform most of the braceros that the money was being withheld and why. So, the braceros didn’t bother to keep their records. Second, the Mexican government’s attempts to register the remaining braceros were frought with bureaucratic disorganization.
So the executive branch of the government now recognizes only 47,000 braceros. That’s better than the 5000 it initially admitted had belonged in the program but still way short of the 200-250 thousand left alive and a long way from the 5,000,000 from whom the US government withheld money, later transferring it to Mexico.
However, one would think that shame alone would push the legislators and the federal government’s executive to get a move on. After all, it’s only been 65 years since the program started and only 42 years since its end. But then, we are talking about a duly elected federal government with its duly appointed bureaucracy where the word “shame” holds no shame. And if the US government ever approves a bracero program again, you would hope it would refund the social security money directly to the workers before returning to Mexico. Or better yet…just not withhold the SS in the first place. But then the Mexican government wouldn’t get their slice.
Note: This post was adapted from information on another blogger’s post.
Tags: Mexico, USA
Zoe
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