1942-1947 Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program started it, and we realized people like food and never stopped having migrant labor to keep the food from rotting in the fields. And even that program had aspects modeled after the New Deal's Farm Security Program in 1937. That program went even further to save our farms by funding the development of entire communities for the migrants:

> The Farm Security Administration, in particular, resettled poor migrants on productive land, building entire communities, cooperatives, schools, and residential camps with running water and sanitary conditions. Agricultural workers were helped to buy equipment, sell crops, manage debt, and purchase farms. It also provided safe spaces away from discrimination where migrants could engage in cultural and recreational activities and rekindle a sense of stability.

The evidence seems pretty clear we need these people