Bracero Program Wage Theft - Wells Fargo Transfers $32 Million That Disappears in Mexico

Between 1942 and 1949, U.S. employers withhold 10% of bracero workers’ wages—totaling at least $32 million—depositing the funds with Wells Fargo Bank and Union Trust Company of San Francisco for transfer to Mexican savings accounts through the Bank of Mexico and Banco de Credito Agricola. The compulsory savings program promises workers they will receive their money upon returning to Mexico. Most braceros, many illiterate, remain unaware of the deductions. The money never reaches the workers. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Ministry later admits there are no records of what happened to the forced savings after rural banks consolidated into Banrural in 1976, with activists and workers describing the disappeared funds as straightforward theft by government officials.

The wage theft scandal remains hidden for decades until 1998 when Ventura Gutiérrez discovers his father’s 1942 contract and notices the compulsory savings provision. Investigation reveals that thousands of braceros struggled to recover their savings and many never did. Workers and activists organize the Braceroproa movement, deliberately evoking Fobaproa—the acronym for a corrupt bank bailout that Mexicans associate with economic crisis and ruling-party corruption. The movement spreads across Mexico and to U.S. cities with large Mexican-American populations including Chicago and Dallas. In 2001, braceros file a class action lawsuit in San Francisco Federal District Court against the U.S. and Mexican governments and Wells Fargo Bank, seeking return of $30-50 million in stolen wages plus $500 billion in punitive damages.

The case drags on for years as defendants dispute responsibility. Wells Fargo acknowledges transferring $34.7 million to Mexico based on government reports but claims diplomatic agreements made the Bank of Mexico responsible for distribution to local Mexican banks. The U.S. government and Wells Fargo are eventually dismissed as defendants. In 2008, the Mexican government agrees to pay just $14.6 million to braceros who worked during World War II and live in the United States—each victim receives 38,000 pesos (approximately $2,000), a fraction of the stolen wages adjusted for inflation. As of 2019, approximately 36,000 elderly migrant laborers in their 70s, 80s, and 90s continue fighting for reimbursement despite a court settlement approved 21 years earlier. The bracero wage theft demonstrates how financial institutions and governments collaborate to facilitate wage theft from vulnerable workers, with both Wells Fargo and Mexican authorities evading accountability for participating in a systematic scheme that stole millions from poor agricultural laborers.