Janice Schakowsky: “I rise today to honor the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, or braceros, who came to this country between 1942…”

“I rise today to honor the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, or braceros, who came to this country between 1942 and the late 1960s and to urge my colleagues to vote for H. Res. 522, expressing gratitude for their work. However, for Congress to truly honor the legacy of the braceros, it must pass the Bracero Justice Act. As many as 400,000 Mexico braceros who came to the U.S. before 1949 had money withheld from their paychecks, with the promise that it would be saved on their behalf, yet it was never returned. The Bracero Justice Act would help right this wrong. In many cases, braceros left their families in Mexico to come work for our benefit. For the most part, braceros took physically demanding jobs in agriculture and railroad construction, and worked for as little as 40 cents an hour. Many had to put up with slave-like conditions, working long hours with few or no breaks, suffering injuries, and dealing with abusive employers. Many of the bracero families were impoverished. The time to honor these workers and the sacrifices they made is long overdue. It would be a shame if further efforts to demand fairness for braceros were dismissed. It is unacceptable that workers who came to the U.S. in response to our call for help and our need for workers now be denied a voice to fight for what has always been theirs.”