United States Immigration Policy toward Mexico: An Historical Perspective

Abstract

Since the turn of the century agricultural growers and industrialists have been importing or otherwise encouraging Mexi- can nationals to migrate to the United States on an organized basis. In 1918, for example, the Department of Labor and the Immigra- tion and Naturalization Service (hereinafter referred to as INS) authorized the importation of 30,000 Mexican nationals to work in agriculture, railroads and other defense-related employment as part of the war effort.' Since then, the Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture and the State Department, operating under various mandates and in conjunction with organized Ameri- can interest groups, have invoked departmental policies and practices that have effectuated specific migration patterns of Mexican nationals and Mexican labor on both sides of the border. These migration patterns have taken various forms-be they legal immigration, bracero, commuter or illegal-and are sufficiently interrelated to be considered as part of an overall United States immigration policy toward Mexico. This article will examine this policy in three parts. The first part will examine the period roughly before 1930. The second is divided into two periods: (1) the depression of the 1930's; and (2) the period of the bracero program. The third part covers the post-bracero period. In conclusion, the so-called illegal alien problem is analyzed in light of the historical antecedents discussed in this article. I.