ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role that migration, both legal and illegal, by Mexican nationals into the US plays in the economic development of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV). Some of the problems with illegal immigration into the US from Mexico stem from the “Bracero Program”. The “Bracero Program” ended in 1964, having allowed more than 4.5 million Mexicans into the US as temporary workers. In 1986, the US Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in an attempt to “regain control of the border” and decrease the number of undocumented immigrants entering the United States, particularly from Mexico. Since the 1970s, the number of undocumented Mexican workers employed in the nonagricultural sector has been growing. From the American perspective, the principal cause of the migratory trends has been the increase in the demand for labor in agriculture, particularly during planting and harvesting.
