Alfonso Piedra Hernandez still has the fading black-and-white laminated card that allowed him into the United States to work in the fields almost 60 years ago.
One of the more than 2 million braceros -- Mexican guest workers who came to the U.S. under the government-sanctioned program from 1942 until 1964 -- Hernandez, 74, is one of tens of thousands of aging workers who want the Mexican government to return money it took from them.
Ten percent of braceros' paychecks was withheld and sent to the Mexican government. The money was supposed to be deposited in a bank and given to the workers upon their return to Mexico -- serving as an incentive to come home. But the braceros were never paid.
"I could use the money," said Hernandez, who now lives in Oxnard, Calif. He spent decades as a farmworker picking fruit and vegetables in Texas, Colorado and California.
Hernandez joined Jesus Galvan, president of the Los Angeles branch of the Alianza Binacional Bracero Proa y Movimiento Latino, and members of several labor groups and their attorney in front of the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard this week to demand that something be done to clear up the confusion surrounding the money owed to braceros.
The farmworkers in that group are now old, and many are unable to travel, but under new rules they may have to return to Mexico to apply to be paid, according to Galvan.
Until last week, the group gathered in Oxnard believed former braceros had until Jan. 28 to apply at any Mexican consulate in the U.S.
But that changed when Galvan and others were informed that former braceros need to return to Mexico to apply.
Juan Jose Gutierrez, an attorney working with the braceros, said the decision may affect as many as 400,000 eligible farmworkers, including many who have already applied at consulates.
The group went to the Oxnard consulate Tuesday to ask Consul Rogelio A. Flores Mejia to get the Mexican government to clarify the process.
An estimated 2.5 million Mexican guest workers came to the U.S. during the two decades the bracero program operated.
It took decades more before the workers' claims were recognized. In 2005, the Mexican government set up a $26.5 million fund to pay the braceros. Millions of dollars have been added to the fund since then, although no one has been paid.
Each bracero -- or the wife or children of those who have died -- could get about $3,500.
Although a settlement has been reached with those who worked during the war years, terms for the payouts to those who came after 1947, such as Hernandez, have yet to be finalized. Making matters worse, as a deadline for applying nears, there is a bureaucratic mix-up over how to do it.
"It's very confusing," said Gutierrez, the attorney working with the group of former braceros.
Eligible people have to submit original documents, such as work cards from more than 40 years ago and Mexican birth certificates.
"We don't know who has the documents," Gutierrez said.
If the mix-up isn't cleared up, he warned that the situation would become a scandal for the Mexican government.
Galvan said it's another sad chapter in the continued abuse of those workers since they first came to work in the United States.
Denis O'Leary, a member of the Oxnard school board, said the workers should be honored like "Rosie the Riveter" for helping America during a time of need.
Braceros who worked in the U.S. during World War II, between 1942 and 1946, have until Jan. 5 to apply for reimbursement, and they can complete that paperwork at any Mexican consulate.
According to Flores, the Mexican consul in Oxnard, applications have been completed by one person from the war years and 89 others who worked here during later years. About 200 others have applied but do not have the proper paperwork, according to Flores. He met with the group Tuesday, telling them that he hadn't been informed of the requirement to apply in Mexico but pledged to find out what was going on.
Meanwhile, Hernandez and another former bracero living in Oxnard, Antonio Jasso Pina, 74, remain unsure about what to do next.
"And what of our brothers who go to Mexico and now don't have the documents to return?" asked Jasso.
(Scott Hadly is a reporter for the Ventura County Star in California.)
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