811.504 Mexico/10–1647: Airgram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in Mexico
A–803. Reference is made to the Embassy’s telegram 1124 of October 16, 1947, in reference to the contracting of workers for the State of Texas under the agreement of March 10, 1947, and to the agreement of April 26, 1943, providing for the recruiting of Mexican agricultural workers. The termination of the supplementary agreement of March 10, 1947 by the Mexican Government, which prevents workers being contracted for the State of Texas, has caused considerable concern to agricultural employers in that State, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Department have been receiving urgent requests for assistance as is indicated by the various memoranda of conversations with American growers, copies of which have been forwarded to the Embassy through usual channels.
[Page 830]The termination of the administration of workers under the agreement of April 26, 1943, as of December 31, 1947, in accordance with an Act of Congress,57 has also resulted in numerous approaches to the Immigration Service and the Department by agricultural employers in various states who wish to retain the majority of the workers now in the United States under a system of private contracts.
In reply to petitions for assistance in the two cases cited above, the Immigration Service and the Department have indicated that the availability of workers ultimately depends upon the willingness of the Mexican Government to make its nationals available and that that willingness in large part will no doubt depend upon the terms offered and the guarantees which would insure compliance with those terms. The Immigration Service has received applications from certain groups of growers in regard to these matters and has written the Department requesting that the Department arrange with the Mexican Government for a conference on these labor matters at the earliest possible date with a view to clarifying the present situation and to continuing the supply of workers which may be needed in the coming months or for an even longer period. You are therefore requested to approach the Mexican Government with a request for such conversations between representatives of the two Governments. The Immigration Service and the Department would prefer to have these conversations in Washington, especially so in view of the fact that the large majority of previous conversations on this matter have been in Mexico City. It is considered desirable to include among the representatives of each country at least one official who has had direct experience with these programs at the border and the American representatives will include one or more officials of this kind at least on an advisory basis. The Immigration Service will probably be represented by either Assistant Commissioner Joseph Savoretti or Assistant Commissioner Willard F. Kelly, or both, and the Department by William G. MacLean, Division of Mexican Affairs.
- Public Law No. 40, approved April 28, 1947, provided that the farm labor supply program should be extended to December 31, 1947, and thereafter liquidated in 30 days (61 Stat. 55).↩