That idea wouldn't be clarified in the article until you got to the 7th paragraph, if you persisted in reading that far into the article.
At that point it states that the Mexican gov't was at fault and had withheld the money from it's own citizens when they returned to Mexico.
The Mexican gov't mistreating it's own citizens? The same gov't that assists them in their quest to go to the U.S. illegally to work and send money back ? The gov't that fights for these worker's rights to live and work in the U.S. ?
Nah... couldn't be .
Settlement Will Allow Thousands of Mexican Laborers in U.S. to Collect Back Pay
Tens of thousands of Mexicans who labored in the United States under a World War II-era guest worker program will be eligible to collect back pay under a settlement to a long-fought lawsuit.
From 200,000 to 300,000 laborers, called braceros, worked as farmhands or railroad workers from 1942 to 1946, and under the program, a portion of their pay was deducted and transferred to the Mexican government to be given to the workers when they returned to Mexico.
But many laborers said they never received the pay, and many never even knew that 10 percent of their salaries was deducted. In 2001, lawyers filed a class action lawsuit in California.
The lawsuit was dismissed twice, as courts considered whether too much time had passed and whether a lawsuit against the Mexican government could have standing in the United States. The American government and Wells Fargo Bank, initially named as defendants, were dismissed from the case.
Scores of elderly ex-braceros staged protests in Mexico, demanding compensation.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the braceros and the Mexican government said the Federal District Court in San Francisco had given preliminary approval to a settlement in the case.
Under the settlement, scheduled for a hearing on final approval in a few months, Mexico would give each bracero, or a surviving heir, $3,500.
“It’s an overdue redress for a very historic grievance,” said Joshua Karsh, a lawyer representing the braceros.
Joel Hernandez, the legal adviser for the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “We are happy that we were able to reach a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. We think it’s very important to reach that stage in order to make it possible that any potential applicant may file an application for social support.”
Ramon Ibarra, now 86, said he did two stints as a bracero, laying track for railroads in Arizona and layering ice into trains carrying fruits and vegetables in Bakersfield, Calif. A widower who has lived in Chicago for 40 years, Mr. Ibarra said he would like to use the money “for my final rites and for my death that is very near” and called it “a victory of principles that allows me to be positive about continuing to live a little longer.”
The braceros, a name coined for people who worked with their arms (brazos), earned about 50 cents an hour, and advocates say many were unable to read their contracts to learn about payroll deductions or were too daunted to try to collect their money in Mexico. The Mexican government collected at least $32 million in deductions, but claims about how much was reimbursed vary.
In 2005, the Mexican government, without admitting liability, agreed to pay about $3,500 in compensation for braceros living in Mexico, but only 49,000 of the 212,000 applications received could provide documentation.
“It is very important to note that X number of people may claim” to be braceros, Mr. Hernandez said. But “many years have passed and they really have to prove that they belong to the braceros program.”
Since many braceros immigrated to the United States after returning to Mexico, an untold number of braceros and their descendants live in states like California, Illinois and Texas.
Mr. Karsh said that the plaintiffs lost their request for “much less stringent documentation requirements,” and that some braceros or their families may lack the paperwork or proof needed to collect in the settlement. Mr. Ibarra, for example, said he had no record of his employment.
But the family of Juan Castaneda Davila, who died in 1972, has documentation that he worked in farm fields and railroads in Kansas and Texas, said his daughter, Lourdes Ramos.
“I feel so-so” about the settlement, Ms. Ramos said. “They deserve more because they tried to help this country.”
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