Larry Craig

In the years during and after World War II, the United States permitted hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers from Mexico and other foreign nations to work temporarily in America. This “bracero” program was largely halted in the early 1960s. However, a very limited number of foreign farmworkers continued to be admitted under the federal “H-2A” program administered by the Labor Department. In the following viewpoint, Larry Craig, a U.S. senator from Idaho, argues that the United States should significantly increase the number of agricultural workers it allows to temporarily work in this country. Such a program would assure American farms of adequate labor and would alleviate the problem of exploitation of illegal farmworkers entering the United States. Craig, a Republican, was first elected to the Senate in 1990.

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