Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

MEXICO CITY (EFE) -- Some 3,000 Mexican migrant farmers who worked in the United States between 1942 and 1964 demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy here Thursday to demand the return of money deducted from their wages during that period.

Police told EFE the demonstration was carried out without incident and the former "braceros," as migrant farmers who worked in the United States are known in Mexico, caused no damage to the building.

The former farm workers arrived at the U.S. Embassy in downtown Mexico City in around 25 buses from the states of Michoacan, Oaxaca and Tlaxcala to demand the return of their lost wages.

The demonstrators were part of the Bracero Program, which allowed Mexican emigrants to work on U.S. farms at a time when the country had a shortage of laborers due to its involvement in World War II and the Korean War.

Under the program, U.S. authorities deducted 10 percent of the migrant workers' wages and placed them in savings accounts, which were supposed to be given to the farmers upon their return to Mexico.

According to the United States, the savings accounts - worth between $150 million and $3 billion, according to different sources - were transferred to the Central Bank of Mexico, which transferred the funds to Banrural, which is scheduled to be liquidated in March.

Roughly 2-2.5 million Mexicans participated in the Bracero Program in a total of 4.6 million contracts.

The braceros have routinely criticized the Mexican government's lack of willingness to either release their funds to them or demand money from the United States to meet the commitment.