Mexican Repatriation

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The Mexican Repatriation was a largely forced migration mainly taking place between 1929 and 1937, when an estimated 500,000^[1] Mexicans and Mexican Americans, of which approximately 250,000^[2] had been born in the United States, were deported or "voluntarily repatriated" to Mexico. Approximately 60% of the people deported were children born in the U.S. and others who, while of Mexican descent, were legal citizens.^[3]

During the Great Depression, Mexicans were viewed as usurpers of American jobs and a burden on social services such as relief aid^{[citation needed]}. The Immigration and Naturalization Service targeted Mexicans because of "the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios."^[4]

These actions were authorized by President Herbert Hoover and targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas and Michigan. Although President Franklin Roosevelt ended federal support for the program when he took office, many state and local governments continued with their efforts.^{[citation needed]}

In 1924, the Quota Act of 1924 reduced immigration from Europe from over 1 million a year to less than 100,000, although exemptions were made for the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico. Following the onset of the Depression, the US government began an active drive against immigrants living illegally in the country. Announcing that there were 400,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S., Sec.of Labor William Doak ordered his agents to carry out provisions of the new law. They raided public and private places from New York City to Los Angeles. Between 1929 and 1935, some 163,900 people were deported from the country for being here illegally, of whom 35,000 were deported to Mexico, roughly 20% of the total.

Doak's agents targeted many groups (more than 70% were either European or Canadian^{[citation needed]}). Some who did not obtain visas crossed illegally, making them legally subject to deportation. Emigration into the United States, particularly European emigration, had been severely curbed, while more than half of all Mexican immigrants who entered during the 1920s did so illegally, according to Manuel Gonzalez, author of Mexicanos.

Many who were not forcibly deported opted to leave of their own volition in light of the anti-Mexican climate. Still others were coerced by social workers who exaggerated the economic opportunities in Mexico. Accumulating in border towns such as Ciudad Juárez, deportees and those who had voluntarily repatriated found few resources.^{[citation needed]}.

The state of California passed the Apology Act for the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Program in 2005, officially recognizing the "unconstitutional removal and coerced emigration of United States citizens and legal residents of Mexican descent" and apologizing to residents of California "for the fundamental violations of their basic civil liberties and constitutional rights committed during the period of illegal deportation and coerced emigration".^[5]^[6]

[edit] Further reading

Francisco Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez, Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s
Abraham Hoffman, Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929-1939 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1974).