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program." There's no doubt that Fox supports amnesty, but his position on guest workers is much closer to Bush. While unpopular among Mexicans already here, a larger guest worker program might be more acceptable to people in Mexico considering the dangerous journey north, in which hundreds die on the border every year. Fox might claim, for instance, that he was opening the door to jobs and legal migration north by allowing greater recruitment of guest workers in Mexico. In Congress, the situation is at impasse for the moment. Neither Berman nor Craig can muster the votes needed for passage, and negotiations for a compromise seem deadlocked. But the attitude of the Bush administration may turn the tide, especially after the November election. His clear preference for guest workers, and reluctance to challenge Republicans like Phil Gramm and Tom Delay, to whom amnesty is anathema, may outline the terrain for the big immigration battle of 2003. Some advocates, like Goldstein, however, are more optimistic. "I think Bush will do the right thing," he predicts. In the end, demographic and economic shifts may also change the terms of the debate. US agriculture has historically been addicted to a vast reservoir of cheap labor. Outside of the brief years of the Dust Bowl, it has been the labor of people of color. African Americans made up the rural labor force of the south for centuries, first as slaves, then as sharecroppers, tenant farmers and finally wage laborers at the bottom of the scale. In the highly-developed, corporate agriculture of the west and southwest, immigrant workers from Mexico, Latin America and Asia constituted a rural labor force with wages at the bottom. In fact, everywhere in the world, rural standards of living are far below those of even poor urban workers. But dependence on abundant cheap labor may no longer be possible, or even necessary. "The oversupply of farm workers has always meant that growers weren't forced to raise wages and improve working conditions. But what would happen," Goldstein speculates, "if workers had legal status and greater political power, and if that helped them to organize strong unions? As the cost of the labor rises, there's a greater incentive for growers to mechanize and use fewer workers. That's already happened in picking cotton, wine grapes, and tomatoes for canning. That's going to happen elsewhere, no matter what. And as it does, it reduces the pressure for guest worker and bracero programs." For Garcia, the old bracero program was the route to establishing a life in the US, but it was a hard one, and he's glad his children won't face it. "When I fixed my immigration status, I decided I wouldn't go back, and I would bring my wife here instead. I was tired of being alone. That was the hardest thing -- the loneliness, even though you have the security of three meals, a place to stay, your job. "I missed my land and my wife, but it was important to send my kids to school. That's what I was trying to do as a bracero. I wanted a real future, and we knew that we were just casual workers - we would never be able to stay. So I had to look for another way. Eventually I got my papers and now I live like anyone else. Those experience were the beginning of the life I'm leading now. Wesurvived,
and here I am. But I always remember how I got here. |