Chairman. I feel certain that my able. distinguished and usually well informed friend from Maryland who offered this amendment. is not entirely familiar with the provisions under which the present program is being carried out. The agreement which we have with the Government of Mexico which forms the basis of this program covers the rate of wages. working condition and every other situation which might arise between the employer and the migrant worker. So my first point. Mr. Chairman. is that this matter is already taken care of. There is no need for any provision of this kind. In the second place. if we adopt this amendments we would have two departments of the Government carrying out this legislationthe Immigration Serviceand the Department of Labor. with all of the confusion and duplication which that would imply. But there is a third and still more important reason I think. and that is that this amendment would be an utter violation of the agreement which we have with the Mexican Government. To substantiate these points I would like to read a portion of a letter written by the Assistant Secretary of Labor. Mr. Siciliano. under date of May 24. 1955 to General Swing. Commissioner of Immigration as follows: The migrant labor agreement with Mexico under article 30 provides a procedure for the determination of whether a worker or employer has breached the work contract or the international agreement. This procedure affords the employer or the worker a right to have his alleged violation investigated Jointly by representatives of the Mexican Foreign Ministry and the United States Department of Labor. Any party adversely affected by a finding under this procedure has a right of appeal to the Secretary of Labor and the representative of the Mexican Government in Washington (Senor Jose Delgado).
Keywords matched
Immigration migrant