Office of the Historian

811.504 Mexico/1–346

The Department of State to the Mexican Embassy

Memorandum

Reference is made to the Mexican Embassy’s memorandum no. 16 of January 3, 1946,81 in regard to the clandestine entry into the United States of Mexican workers through the zone betwen Mexicali, Lower California, and San Luis, Sonora.

A copy of the memorandum has been transmitted to the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States for consideration, and the subject has also been discussed with a high official of that Service who participated in the conversations in Mexico referred to in the second paragraph of the memorandum.82 The official informally stated that the Service was much concerned over the same question because of the great number of Mexican workers entering this country in spite of the careful supervision maintained by that Service and in spite of the fact that approximately six thousand Mexican workers who have entered illegally, for the most part through the zone mentioned, are returned to Mexico each month at great expense to this Government. The official stated that the memorandum would be given every consideration but that it was his belief that successful control of this movement could only be brought about by the establishment of a parallel supervisory system by the Mexican Government in the zone under reference to prevent the departure of these workers from Mexico.

Washington, January 14, 1946.
  1. Not printed; it indicated that the Mexican Embassy requested cooperation of the United States in taking necessary measures of vigilance in the zone between Mexicali, Lower California, and San Luis, Sonora, through which it was reported that approximately 300 Mexican workers entered the United States illegally each day (811.504 Mexico/1–346).↩
  2. In this paragraph reference is made to United States-Mexican conversations held in Mexico, May–June, 1944, resulting in an agreement, signed on June 2, 1944, that the Governments of both countries would increase their measures of vigilance to impede illegal migration of Mexican workers, and to return the illegal entrants from the United States to Mexico. For documentation on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. vii, pp. 1290 ff.↩