811.504 Mexico/9–444
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Mexico (Bursley)
Sir: Reference is made to a telephone conversation on August 26, 1944 between Mr. Sidney E. O’Donoghue, Second Secretary of the Embassy, and an officer of the Department24 and to the Department’s instruction no. 6258 of September 14, 194425 regarding six questions raised by the Mexican Government in connection with the continued employment of Mexican nationals in the United States under the agreements of April 26 and 29, 1943.
As the Embassy was informed in the instruction under reference, communications were addressed by the Department to the War Manpower Commission, the War Food Administration, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service with the request that each furnish the Department with its opinion regarding any of the points of interest to it. The Department has now received replies from all three agencies and attaches herewith for your information copies of the War Manpower Commission’s reply, which is dated September 28, 1944,25 and of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s reply, dated September 22, 1944.25 A copy of the War Food Administration’s reply, dated September 4, 1944,25 was forwarded as an enclosure to the Department’s instruction under reference.
The six proposals made by the Mexicans are quoted below with a statement of the consensus of opinion on each.
1. That the War Manpower Commission provide funds for subsistence and transportation of the ten inspectors which the Ministry of Labor will send to the United States where there are Mexican maintenance-of-way workers.
The War Manpower Commission is presently completing plans for the payment of per diem and transportation for ten Mexican labor inspectors who will inspect the housing and working conditions of Mexican nationals in the United States for railroad employment. Maps illustrating the regional organization of the War Manpower Commission have already been furnished to the Department and transmitted to the Embassy for delivery to the Mexican Government.
2. That uniforms be provided for Mexican workers (agricultural and railroad) who are in the United States.
The shortage of manpower, coupled with the lack of cutting and sewing machines and material, makes it impossible to arrange for supplying Mexican nationals with uniforms.
3. That workers illegally in the United States be returned to Mexico through ports of entry specified by the Mexican authorities. [Page 1326]
This question refers only to Mexican workers illegally in the United States, and not to workers who have been contracted under either the agricultural or nonagricultural agreements under reference. These illegal entrants were discussed by representatives of the two Governments in Mexico City early in June 1944, and they were the subject of the first three and the fifth numbered paragraphs of the Resolution dated June 2, 194428 which were agreed upon by those representatives. The Department has not been informed that the Mexican Foreign Office has replied to the note of the Embassy, under instructions from the Department, offering to make effective the Resolution of June 2 upon receipt of a reply accepting the terms thereof. In the meantime this Government has been actively carrying out the terms of the Resolution, although it is understood that the Mexican Government has not yet taken all the steps which were contemplated in regard to illegal departures from Mexico and the disposition of such individuals upon their delivery to Mexico by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
In regard to the present question, the Immigration and Naturalization Service states that the District Director of that Service at Los Angeles, California, reports that 1233 Mexican nationals were deported or granted voluntary departure through ports within his District during the month of June of this year, and that the number increased to 2613 in July. During the same months, the Los Angeles District effected the removal of 111 and 333 Mexican nationals, respectively, through the port of El Paso, Texas. It is pointed out by the District Director that even with the relatively small number of Mexican nationals departing through El Paso from the Los Angeles District, considerable difficulty was experienced in furnishing detention accommodations pending completion of arrangements for their return to Mexico.
A great majority of illegal entrants from Mexico apprehended in the Los Angeles District are found in the Imperial and Yuma Valleys, and most of these persons at the present time are granted voluntary departure through local ports without detention overnight. If such points were to be excluded as ports of departure for these Mexican nationals, in favor of the ports of El Paso and Laredo, Texas, such a practice would not only operate to increase the period of detention of the aliens involved, but would also greatly overtax detention facilities in the Los Angeles District. For these reasons, the proposal of the Mexican Government does not appear to be practicable.
4. That these railroad workers who are at present working only eight hours a day be employed for ten hours a day.
Plans are now being completed for the railroads participating in the program to employ Mexican workers at least ten hours a day.
5. That the practice in the Chicago area of placing in jail agricultural workers who have gone absent without leave from their contracts should be discontinued.
A plan has been placed in operation recently whereby a Mexican agricultural worker, who is awaiting return to Mexico from the Chicago district, may be paroled with the local Mexican consul if he is willing to accept the responsibility of producing the worker when wanted. The Consul has made arrangement, with the cooperation of the War Food Administration, to provide food and lodging for any agricultural workers paroled to him who do not have the necessary funds to provide for themselves. However, in any discussions on this point with the Mexican Government, it should be made clear that the desertion of contracts cannot be considered lightly by the interested agencies of this Government.
6. That upon the expiration of the contracts of the Mexican workers now in the United States, their return be effected at a rate not greater than that of their departure for the United States, according to the monthly average.
Two provisions of the international agreements have a special bearing upon this question, the section regarding numbers of workers and the next to the last of the general considerations. They read as follows:
“As it is impossible to determine at this time the number of workers who may be needed in the United States for agricultural (or nonagricultural) labor employment, the employer shall advise the Mexican Government from time to time as to the number needed. The Government of Mexico shall determine in each case the number of workers who may leave the country without detriment to its national economy.”
“Either Government shall have the right to renounce this understanding, giving appropriate notification to the other Government 90 days in advance.”29
It is the opinion of this Government that these provisions contemplate and provide for the orderly movement of workers from and to Mexico. Furthermore, the method of issuing individual contracts to workers, generally for a period of six months, insures the distribution of the return of workers to Mexico over a period of six months from the date when recruiting may be suspended by action of either Government. The letters under reference from the War Food Administration and the War Manpower Commission both express the opinion that when recruiting ceases workers will probably return to Mexico at no greater rate than approximately 8,000 a month under the agricultural worker program and 7,000 a month under the nonagricultural worker program. It is probable that the cessation of activities under the two agreements will not coincide because of varying labor conditions in the United States. It may develop that the railroad workers will be needed for a longer period of time than the agricultural workers, or vice versa, and for that reason either of the agreements [Page 1328] may be continued in effect beyond the life of the other, and the return of workers to Mexico would consequently be spread over a longer period of time. It may also be pointed out to the Mexican Government that capitulation of the enemy in either or both theaters of operation will probably not mean the immediate return to civilian life of the armed forces of the United States, and that Mexican workers will probably be needed until demobilization has provided domestic workers to the industries now using Mexican workers under the agreements.
It must also be taken into consideration that no authority exists either under the agreements or under the laws of the United States which would permit the compulsory extension of contracts by the employers or by Government agencies, or that would make it obligatory upon the workers to accept such an extension.
The Department concurs in the answers set forth above, and you are authorized, in your discretion, to approach the Mexican Government with a view to reaching an understanding in regard to the six questions raised by the Mexican Government.
Very truly yours,
- See memorandum of August 28, supra. ↩
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- For summary of these paragraphs, see despatch 18085, June 6, from Mexico, p. 1314; Resolution not printed.↩
- See Agreements of April 26 and April 29, 1943, cited in footnotes 60 and 65, pp. 1290 and 1292. The wording of paragraph 1 differs slightly from that of the April 29 agreement.↩