Chairman. this bill not only opens the door to recruitment of wetback labor but also is completely silent on any means for controlling the present wetback situation. By providing for the legalization of wetbacks and giving publicity to this type of provision we would encourage and invite the invasion of this country by a million or more wetbacks seeking employment. Even if we gave employment to onefourth of them. which is unlikely. the Immigration and Naturalization Service would be required to spend millions of dollars in rounding up and deporting those not employed. My fears in this direction. Mr. Chairman. are not the result of any illusion. Before World War II. the record shows quite clearly that we neither imported Mexican contract labor nor were faced with any largescale wetback problem. However. in 1949. we made a colossal blunder when we entered into an international agreement with Mexico which permitted the contracting of wetbacks in this country. The number of apprehensions jumped from less than 30.000 in 1944 to more than 300.000 in 1949.
Keywords matched
Naturalization Immigration deporting contract labor