811.504 Mexico/4–445: Airgram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Mexico (Bursley)
A–849. Reference is made to the Department’s airgram no. 740 of April 21, 1945,50 and to previous communications regarding the return [Page 1144] to Mexico of Mexican illegal entrants into the United States by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States under the terms of the joint memorandum of January 9, 1945.52 Reference is also made to the information telephoned to the Department on April 25, 1945, by Mr. Sidney E. O’Donoghue, Second Secretary of Embassy, that the War Food Administration and the War Manpower Commission were not interested in proceeding further with arrangements to recruit these individuals in view of the fact that only 125 to 150 a week would be made available.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service informed the Department on May 2 by telephone that it had now begun the delivery of illegal entrants to Nogales, Sonora, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, as contemplated under the joint memorandum of January 9. The Service said that 41 were delivered at El Paso on April 25, and 51 were being delivered on May 2, and that 58 had been delivered at Nogales on April 30. Those delivered to Nogales were residents of the mainland Pacific Coast States of Mexico as agreed upon. The Immigration Service stated that the rate of return might increase slightly.
You are authorized, in your discretion, to inform the appropriate agencies of the Mexican Government of this movement of workers and express the hope that, as set forth in the joint memorandum, the Mexican Government will take the necessary measures to transport these workers from the border so that it will not be easy for these individuals immediately to re-enter the United States clandestinely.