<P> American growers longed for a system that would admit Mexican workers and guarantee them an opportunity to grow and harvest their crops, and place them on the American market . Thus, during negotiations in 1948 over a new bracero program, Mexico sought to have the United States impose sanctions on American employers of undocumented workers . </P> <P> President Truman signed Public Law 78 (which did not include employer sanctions) in July 1951 . Soon after it was signed, United States negotiators met with Mexican officials to prepare a new bilateral agreement . This agreement made it so that the U.S. government were the guarantors of the contract, not U.S. employers . The braceros could not be used as replacement workers for U.S. workers on strike; however, the braceros were not allowed to go on strike or renegotiate wages . The agreement set forth that all negotiations would be between the two governments . </P> <P> A year later, Congress approved a bill that made the harboring of an illegal immigrant a felony . However the Texas Proviso stated that employing unauthorized workers would not constitute as "harboring or concealing" them . This also led to the establishment of the H - 2A visa program, which enabled laborers to enter the U.S. for temporary work . There were a number of hearings about the United States--Mexico migration, which overheard complaints about Public Law 78 and how it did not adequately provide them with a reliable supply of workers . Simultaneously, unions complained that the braceros' presence was harmful to U.S. workers . </P> <P> The outcome of this meeting was that the United States ultimately got to decide how the workers would enter the country by way of reception centers set up in various Mexican states and at the United States border . At these reception centers, potential braceros had to pass a series of examinations . The first step in this process required that the workers pass a local level selection before moving onto a regional migratory station where the laborers had to pass a number of physical examinations; lastly, at the U.S. reception centers, workers were inspected by health departments, sprayed with DDT and then were sent to contractors that were looking for workers . </P>

The bracero program brought workers from the philippines to california