Mexican workers entering U.S. in 1942; Wikipedia Commons
In early 1942, due to an insufficient labor force, the USA was experiencing a shortage of food and other goods. As a temporary solution, the U.S. and Mexico devised an agreement to import Mexican laborers into the USA through the Bracero program (someone who works using his arms).
Throughout WWII, train loads of Mexican workers streamed into the U.S. to work on farms and railroads. Although the initial Bracero agreement expired in 1947, the program was continued in agriculture under a variety of laws and agreements between the U.S. and Mexico until its formal end in 1964.
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of racial attacks in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, during a period when many migrants arrived for the defense effort and newly assigned servicemen flooded the city. Wartime regulations were perceived as part of supporting the war effort. United States Sailors and Marines attacked Mexican youths, recognizable by the zoot suits they favored, as being unpatriotic. American military personnel and Mexicans were the main parties in the riots;
Thanks, Doug.
See my post 7/30/14 about this racism in 1942 – “Sleepy Lagoon Murder – August 1942”