THE EXPULSION OF TWO MILLION MEXICANS FROM THE UNITED STATES IN THE 1930s - AN ALMOST UNKNOWN HISTORICAL EVENT

Many of those "Mexicans" had been born in the United States and had American citizenship.

THE MEXICAN REPATRIATION

It refers to a mass migration that took place between 1929 and 1939, when as many as TWO MILLION people of Mexican descent were forced or pressured to leave the US.

This event occurred during the latter end of the Hoover Presidency and into Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second term. The event, carried out by American authorities, took place without due process.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service targeted Mexicans because of "the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios."

Studies have provided conflicting numbers for how many people were “repatriated” during the Great Depression. The State of California passed an "Apology Act" that estimated 2 million people were forced to relocate to Mexico and an estimated 1.2 million were US citizens.

Authors Balderrama and Rodriguez have estimated that the total number of repatriates was about one million, and 60 percent of those were citizens of the United States. These estimates come from newspaper articles and government records and the authors assert all previous estimates severely under counted the number of repatriates (Balderrama).

An older study conducted by Hoffman argues that about 500,000 people were sent to Mexico. His data comes from the "Departmento de Migracion de Mexico" or “Mexican Migration Service,” which is said to be a reliable source since the Mexican government had many ports along the border in which Mexicans were required to register and could do so free of charge (Aguila and Hoffman).

The Repatriation is not widely discussed in American history textbooks; in a 2006 survey of the nine most commonly used American history textbooks in the United States, four did not mention the Repatriation, and only one devoted more than half a page to the topic. Nevertheless, many mainstream textbooks now carry this topic. In total, they devoted four pages to the Repatriation, compared with eighteen pages for the Japanese American internment which, though also a gross violation of the rights of citizens, affected a much smaller number of people, even by the more conservative estimates for the Mexican deportations.

These actions were authorized by President Herbert Hoover and continued by FDR who was the 32nd President of the United States (1933–1945) and targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, and Michigan.

Source -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriation


RELATED


Los Angeles apologizes for role in massive deportations.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/la-apologizes-for-deportation_n_1295052.html


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