Sections 501 and 504 of H. R. 3283 would be corrected by the Ellender proposal so that the Secretary of Labor would be authorized to recruit only those Mexican workers legally entering the United States. In this way S. 984 would discourage rather than encourage an Invasion of illegal migrants in violation of our immigration laws in the expectation of obtaining employment in this country. Second. the Ellender bill would discourage the use of illegal entrants by preventing employers from obtaining legal contract labor where they also use wetback labor in situations charging them with knowledge that they are employing wetbacks. Third. the Ellender bill would impose effective criminal penalties upon any person employing any Meiiican alien illegally in this country where the employer knows or has reasonable grounds to believe. or suspect. or by reasonable Inquiry could have ascertained that the alien is not lawfully in the United States. Similar penalties would be imposed for a failure of the employer to report promptly to an immigration officer information obtained during the course of employment indicating that the alien is not legally in the United States. The enactment of the Ellender bill as a substitute for H. R. 3283 will provide sound standby legislation for obtaining Mexican contract labor to the extent necessary during the present national emergency. It will improve the minor defects now present in the machinery provided by H. R. 3283 and. above all. it will create for the first time effective remedies for the gradual control and eventual abolition of the wetback system.
Keywords matched
immigration contract labor migrants