[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 78 (Thursday, June 13, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1045-E1046]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    THE BRACERO JUSTICE ACT OF 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. LUIS V. GUTIERREZ

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 12, 2002

  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce the introduction 
of my bill, the Bracero Justice Act of 2002. I am joined by 
Representatives Farr, Filner, Pastor, Napolitano, Solis, Baca, Roybal-
Allard, Serrano, McGovern, Rodriguez, Frank, Menendez, Millender-
McDonald, Schakowsky, Gonzalez, Ortiz, Velazquez, Acevedo-Vila, Reyes, 
Lipinski, Becerra, McKinney, Davis (IL), and Berman.
  I am very pleased to introduce legislation that offers relief to 
people who have long sought help. My bill would allow people to seek 
recourse in a venue that so often has protected the most vulnerable in 
our society: the federal judicial system. In short, my bill would give 
a deserving group of people their day in court and to have their case 
heard on the merits.
  Bracero workers have been waiting for their day in court for nearly 
six decades. Sixty years ago, in 1942, the U.S. Government entered into 
a program that was designed to help America get through the economic 
challenges that accompanied World War II. Under the program, nearly 5 
million workers came to the United States from Mexico, to carry out the 
back-breaking labor that kept our Nation going. They filled in where 
labor was in short supply--especially in agriculture. Their work

[[Page E1046]]

allowed America to carry out its war effort and to feed the country and 
its troops.
  After the war, during the late 1940s and into the 1960s, braceros 
helped keep America growing and expanding. Some worked on farms, others 
in railroad construction or other jobs. Unfortunately, despite working 
a full day in the fields, despite being fully exposed to the elements 
and a full range of other challenges, braceros did not receive 
compensation in full. As many as 400,000 workers saw their paychecks 
reduced by as much as $70 million.
  During the first 7 years of the program, it was an overt, explicit 
policy that each worker would sacrifice 10 percent of his or her 
salary, with the promise that it would be available to them upon their 
return to Mexico. It was a policy which very well may have continued 
long after that period, and affected far more workers. And, yet, the 
money disappeared. It went unaccounted for. At least $70 million of 
it--which, with interest, may be worth as much as $500 million to a 
billion dollars today--was gone.
  Today, Members of both parties speculate about the possibility that 
American workers will not get the full Social Security payout to which 
they are entitled upon their retirement. Here is a real-life example of 
exactly that scenario. In this case, it was tens (perhaps hundreds) of 
millions of dollars that rightfully belonged to people who had little 
resources then--who had little resources in the years since. And, in 
many cases, few resources today. Without this legislation, these people 
will lack the most basic resource of all: the ability to have their 
complaint heard.
  Do we know where the money went? No. However, we do know this: Under 
the Bracero program, the U.S. Government acted as the employer. Workers 
were contracted out to various businesses--farms, for example. The U.S. 
Government withheld 10 percent of their wages. The funds were then to 
be transferred to Wells-Fargo Bank and this bank was to transfer it to 
the Banco de Mexico which would then (supposedly) transfer it to 
regional banks.
  Somewhere along the way--sometime during a process which we know 
began on U.S. soil and may, for all we know, ended on U.S. soil, too--
the money was lost. Or taken away. All we know is, the money is still 
owed. To discover where the money went, to get some accounting of what 
went wrong, is one of the primary goals of a lawsuit filed last year in 
federal court. But, even that basic step is blocked until certain legal 
matters are resolved. These matters are addressed in this bill, the 
Bracero Justice Act of 2002.
  For example, my bill addresses the issue of the statute of 
limitations. We must eliminate any time limits on legal action. Just as 
we have seen with Holocaust survivors who were robbed of their assets 
or the Japanese citizens interned in our country for years--waiving the 
statute of limitations is a necessary step in seeking justice that is 
decades overdue. My bill also addresses jurisdictional questions, 
allowing suits to be filed in any district court, so the full universe 
of workers can gain relief.
  The Bracero Justice Act also seeks a waiver of sovereign immunity, so 
that action can be taken against a government--whether the United 
States or Mexican Government--if it is found that their actions 
contributed to this fiasco. Eligibility of class members matters, so 
that the full category of workers who may have been harmed, which may 
have included braceros working into the late 1960s, may have legal 
standing. In short, what we are asking is that such cases be heard and 
decided on their merits so that justice cannot be dismissed on a 
technicality, so that we can discover--first and foremost--the truth.
  I am confident that my colleagues will agree that the American 
legislative and judicial system can be put to work to help people who 
were put to work to build and grow and feed our country. Please join me 
in cosponsoring my bill, the Bracero Justice Act of 2002.

                          ____________________