The Braceros Program was designed, just eight months after Pearl Harbor, to recruit Mexican farm laborers during WWIl. Under an agreement between the US and Mexican governments, Mexican farm workers were contracted to come to the US and harvest the crops that were needed for the US population and the soldiers fighting the war in Europe. The contracts with the individual workers required them to return to Mexico, when they were no longer needed.

At first, thousands, and eventually millions of Latino farm workers were recruited, even more after than during the war. Though the Braceros Program ended in Oregon in 1947, Oregon continues to rely primarily on Latino farm labor to cultivate and harvest the State's agricultural production.