Mr. Speaker. those who speak for the bracero program say that we do not have enough workers to harvest these crops. and that more must be brought into the country. Yet I doubt that many. if any. of them would favor increased immigration as a means to fill the gap they speak about. In the first place. the gap might not be there at all. in the second place. immigrants are freemen. and I really doubt that many of them would perform stoop labor at stoop wages for very long. You see. Mr. Speaker. the trouble with immigrants is that they are free. and can go wherever they please and work for whatever they can command. just like anybody else. The bracero has the advantage of not being able to go anywhere he pleases and not being able to earn whatever his labor is worth. Because an immigrant is free. he probably does not fill the supplemental labor bill. But a bracero is not free. and so he obviously has the advantage in the eyes of the proponents of Public Law 78. If we need more labor. let us use freemen. Those braceros would be glad to be free. Let them come in as immigrants. not as serfs. bound to their masters. Let them come in as men. not as units of a certain commodity needed for a short time and shipped back when used. They can come in as freemen. but not as long as Public Law 78 is on the books.
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immigrant immigration immigrants