Though the conditions related to NAFTA

A Snapshot of Bracero Workers. Click on this graphic to read about the program in-depth. You will be taken to the Natural Musuem of American History's "America on the Move" page.

exacerbated the influx of Mexican immigrants and caused the rise of grassroots movements, the United States first enacted a series of severe legislative procedures (as indicated above) that resulted in the exploitation of the Mexican population and began the migrations in earnest. Of the historic manipulation of Mexicans, Duke University Professor Michael Katz remarked, “the world of Mexicans had become increasingly transnational” to reflect the constant border-crossing of the population.

From the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the federal interventions of the 1920s, Mexicans moved easily and frequently back and forth across the border. It wasn’t until federally legislated quotas were implemented that this form of legal immigration began to be monitored; this resulted in the inception of border patrol, which proved instrumental when the US government repatriated more than 400,000 Americans during the Great Depression out of a worry about jobs for Americans and the burden of welfare dependency.

However, Mexicans were subsequently enlisted to meet the growing labor needs of American agriculture, which led to the initiation of the Bracero Program, which allowed Mexicans to enter the United States as guest workers. Though the program proved to be Mexico’s “economic miracle”, as it provided a stable and steady workforce for the working class, it ended in 1964, when Congress refused to reauthorize it.

Consequently, Mexican immigration to the US accelerated once again. The US responded by imposing new limits on immigration, allowing as little as 20,000 into the United States annually. The result promoted an explosion of undocumented immigration. States at the time, such as California, were in need of large amounts of cheap laborers, and American border authorities seldom curtailed the laborer supply. This illegal form of immigration was identified as a “stable and circular migratory system between the United States and Mexico” because laborers would then return upon completion of work.

At its zenith, this illegal form of immigration benefited both the United States and Mexico. In spite of this, Mexican inflation as well as mounting hysteria over ‘illegal’ immigration—reinforced by [US] domestic economic problems led to the passage of The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA).  It provided amnesty for undocumented immigrants, implemented sanctions for employers of unauthorized workers, and strengthened border patrol.

However, it instead inadvertently led to an upsurge in undocumented workers and discouraged workers from returning to an economically disparaged Mexico. Although IRCA was the last legislative measure enacted by the United States before the signing of NAFTA in 1994, it also served as the last of a long line of exploitative and marginalizing measures that resulted in eliciting the migration of Mexican workers to the US illegally. These circumstances, in combination of the factors associated with the passage of NAFTA, promoted an outpouring of oppressed migrants from Mexico and retaliation by citizens through media.

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