The Real Story About Guest Workers

HOUSTON- It’s stunning how little we learn from the events closest to us. Take for instance how we got into this situation about guest workers and how leadership avoids the obvious.

This time a century ago, Mexican workers came across the virtually unknown border to work in this country’s agriculture and railroads. Then as now we had labor shortages. Then as now some U.S. companies were doing land office business south of the border.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service was created in 1924 - to halt Chinese entry, I might add. The history and tradition of a U.S.-Mexico trans-border movement was already well established. The fluid goings and comings were influenced by market forces.

At the time of the Great Depression and the 1930s, unknown tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of Mexicans with and without documentation were “repatriated.” Then as now, many families were broken up.

The rationalization for such inhumane actions was similar to today. Those people were said to take jobs away and they were a drain on the amount of relief available to the unemployed. The policy imposed by local authorities was to simply throw them out.

Niceties back then weren’t observed. All people of Mexican descent, including those with papers, were painted the same way. This further marginalized them, leading to a public presumption all were less than full citizens. That was exploited politically through civil and voting rights denials. Hence, another chapter of this infamous history.

Then came World War II. Mexico declared war against the Axis powers. Some of its own ships were sunk in the Gulf by Germany. Mexican citizens were encouraged to volunteer for U.S. military service. Our friendly neighbor sent the 201st Expeditionary Air Squadron to fight with General Douglas MacArthur, Mexico ...