Mexican states launch their own guest worker programs for U.S. companies

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Posted 8:35AM on Friday, March 22, 2002

MONTERREY, Mexico - The nine ranch hands grabbed their duffel bags and headed to the Rio Grande as night fell. But unlike millions of Mexicans who sneak across the border, these men didn't need the cloak of darkness or a smuggler to help them. They carried U.S. work visas. U.S. employers hard-pressed to find American workers, such as farming and meat packing businesses, have recruited Mexican laborers on their own for a decade. But now Mexican states are helping find workers. Before Sept. 11, U.S. and Mexican officials had been negotiating a major increase in temporary work visas as a way to slow illegal migration. President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox are expected to renew the talks while meeting Friday in Monterrey during a U.N. development conference. The new state programs sit well with Erma and Rodrigo Zendejas, who have had trouble finding workers for their pine tree-planting business, Tree O-Forrestry Services, in Warren, Ark. Few Americans are willing to do the work, so they have had to look south for a decade. Their success was limited. "They'll work two, maybe three days, then they're gone. Last month the whole doggone crew left," Erma Zendejas said. "A lot of guys just want to use the visas. They just want to get to the States and that's it." But this year they went to the government of Coahuila state, which borders Texas. State officials found nine men and then accompanied the couple and the men to the U.S consulate in Monterrey, where they waited 10 hours to obtain visas for the workers. "I've been really impressed with the program," Rodrigo Zendejas said. "I think working through the state will make a big difference so workers don't take off." State officials run criminal background checks on applicants, guaranteeing they have had no troubles with the law on either side of the border. Officials also repeatedly warn workers of the consequences of not fulfilling their contracts, and they keep in contact with the workers' families in Mexico, which helps pressure the laborers to return when their visas expire after four to 11 months. Zacatecas, a state bordering Coahuila to the south, was the first to start a guest-worker program 18 months ago and has sent hundreds of workers to companies from Pennsylvania to California. A dozen other states have followed suit, and another dozen are looking into it. In April, Puebla just south of Mexico City sent 130 gardeners to mow golf courses in Michigan. Most of the programs are too new to establish that all workers will return once their visas expire. So far none of those sent by Zacatecas have left to seek work illegally in the United States. "We tell them that they will be marked for life and will never be able to work in the United States again" if they don't return, said Armando Esparza of the Zacatecas migrant assistance office. The Bracero program, a 1942 agreement between the United States and Mexico, sent 5 million temporary workers to the United States to harvest crops and maintain railroad tracks. But the flow of illegal immigrants expanded along with the authorized workers and continued to grow after the program ended in 1964. Many say the problems of the Bracero program were partly due to its implementation. Mexicans lived in overcrowded camps and were denied medical assistance. Under the new state programs, Mexican officials investigate workers' complaints and report abuses to U.S. authorities. But the programs don't spell out labor rights, such as the right to join a union or to receive health insurance and other benefits. Rodolfo Garcia, an economist in Zacatecas, said no program will work until rights are clearly defined. "Those who are going are the poorest of the poor who have not been able to afford to migrate otherwise," Garcia said. "This is a vulnerable population that accepts the lowest salaries and doesn't demand their basic rights." Armando Juarez, a husky 30-year-old ranch hand from the Zacatecas village of Trancoso, worked 13-hour days at a San Antonio meat packing company. The job, rapidly cutting carcasses, was dangerous work. One of his companions sliced a nerve in his finger only weeks into the job. The Mexican workers had no health insurance and the man had to return to Mexico. "The company didn't do anything," Juarez said. "I worried a lot. If you chopped off your hand, what could you do? That's what I didn't like." Juarez also said he was promised a raise after two months on the job, but didn't get it until seven months later, shortly before his visa expired. Even so, he bought his first car with the $1,000 he saved in nine months, and hopes to renew his visa and return to the plant. "At least you don't have to risk crossing the Rio Grande," he said. "And you're not considered a criminal."