Their images share the haunting starkness of prints from the Great Depression.</p><p>Captured in black and white, the faces of the braceros appear weary with the burdens of their day: dusty landscapes of endless fields of cotton and sugar beets to tend, orchards of oranges to pick, and lines to stand in awaiting a meager midday meal.</p><p>One look and you just know that these are people who worked harder and longer than most Americans can fathom for a day&#8217;s pay.</p><p>Bracero means arm in Spanish. The term braceros referred to what they were, manual laborers. From 1942 to 1964, millions of men were legally recruited from Mexico to work mostly agricultural jobs in the U.S. They are credited with helping to keep the U.S. afloat economically and families fed during World War II while much of the working-age population fought overseas.</p><p>But despite their role helping us to win World War II, many were cheated out of a portion of their wages.</p><p>In October, a California court decision has opened the way for some of the men living in the U.S. to receive a portion of the money they earned.</p><p>During some years of the program, 10 percent was deducted from their paychecks in a pension plan of sorts, sent to Mexico to be given back when they returned home. Not surprisingly, the deducted cash disappeared into Mexican banks.</p><p>Years of protests and court cases in Mexico and the U.S. are finally allowing some the men, or their heirs, payments of about $3,500. It is a pittance compared to what is actually owed.</p><p>As one volunteer with a program organizing the aging workers said, &#8220;Most of them probably will die without seeing their money.&#8221;</p><p>The plight of the braceros should be a cautionary tale for the next president of the United States.</p><p>No matter which candidate wins the upcoming election, he will certainly need to address the nation&#8217;s immigration quandaries.</p><p>Outgoing President Bush has supported greatly expanding a guest -worker program that allows workers to enter the U.S. for limited stays. The idea garnered support in both the House and the Senate but failed to pass amid backlash against the notion of granting workers already here any form of relief for their illegal status.</p><p>Yet judging from the bracero program&#8217;s history, the guest-worker &#8220;solution&#8221; is likely to present a host of other problems: union busting, inhumane treatment, horrific injuries, inadequate documentation, exploited workers silenced by the threat of deportation, and deleterious effects on the wider economy, such as the possibility of stagnating wages.</p><p>The bracero program was in many ways crushingly unjust and ended up betraying principles Americans hold dear, such as the idea of an honest day&#8217;s pay for an honest day&#8217;s labor.</p><p>One U.S. Department of Labor official in charge of the program termed it &#8220;legalized slavery.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Frankly, all I hear are terrible stories,&#8221; said Violeta Dominguez, who documented the oral histories of many braceros. &#8220;Overall as a program it was a failure.&#8221;</p><p>So, can we possibly countenance attempting something like it again?</p><p>I think the answer is yes, and the reason has to do with the demographics of the U.S.</p><p>As the baby boom population ages, the U.S. workforce is experiencing shortages of certain kinds of labor.</p><p>A valid argument can be made that manual laborers from outside of the country will be necessary to sustain some sectors of the economy.</p><p>Some will argue that the unemployment figures of today show that immigrant workers are not necessary.</p><p>But U.S. policy ought to aim our workforce toward higher-level skills; our workers should not aspire to the kind of work typically done by temporary migrant laborers.</p><p>Having said that, strict regulation and oversight must be built into any guest-worker program. And governments on both sides of the border must commit mutually to ensure fairness.</p><p>Finally, such a program can only succeed if one other essential element is included, say those who have chronicled the braceros&#8217; experiences.</p><p>In the initial years of the bracero program, the men told of being referred to as &#8220;soldiers&#8221; by their employers.</p><p>They were considered an essential part of the war effort &#8212; and therefore deserving of respect, not treatment as expendable human chattel.