Catherwood LibraryILR School

Just one month after a U.S. federal judge threw out their lawsuit against the U.S. and Mexican governments and private corporations in part because of an expired statute of limitations (see WIT for August 30, 2002), WWII Mexican guest workers have been given another chance for justice. California Governor Gray Davis yesterday signed legislation passed by the State Legislature that extends until 2005 the originally six-year statute of limitations on the non-payment of wages violations alleged by the braceros. The bill means that a statute of limitations that the 300,000 workers who aided in the U.S. war effort on the home front likely did not even know about, will not prevent them and their descendents from seeking at least those back wages owed them by the U.S. government.