Mexican Repatriation
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The Mexican Repatriation was an involuntary migration mainly taking place between 1929 and 1937, when an estimated 400-500,000 Mexicans left the US due to high unemployment, fear of deportation, encouragement by welfare agencies and the Mexican government. During the Great Depression, Mexicans and Mexican Americans 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."[1]
These actions were authorized by President Herbert Hoover and targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois 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 and Chicago, to Los Angeles and San Francisco. 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. Moreover, the number deported during the 1930s was actually lower than it was in the 1920s, when some 286,000 were sent out of the country. More than 90% were European.
The Mexican origin (both foreign and native) increased from 1.3 million in 1930 to 1.6 million in 1940. The American born population of Mexican descent increased from 642,000 to 1.2 million in this period, while foreign born population declined from 637,000 to 375,000.
Abraham Hoffman, author of “Unwanted Mexican Americans”, which is the authority on the repatriation of the 1930s, documents how some 500,000 Mexicans left the US from 1929 to 1939. Around 35,000 were deported, while another 47,000 underwent voluntary departure (illegal immigrants who left on their own violation). This is all on file with the Immigration and Naturalization Services files. About 400,000 voluntarily repatriated. According to Abraham “Apart from this, it has been shown that the actual movement of thousands of Mexican nationals was not due solely to federal motivations but was the result of a web of factors spun by acute unemployment, the threat of deportation, the urging of welfare officials, and the acceptance of repatriation idea (by Mexico) with its lure of colonization projects and free transportation.” The factors involved were complex. He continues: “The vast majority of Mexicans who returned to Mexico during the depression did not take part in government sponsored programs. Many repatriates simply returned to the area they had been born and where their relatives and old friends lived. In many cases the children they bought with them looked upon Mexico, not the United States, as a foreign land.” Moreover, Mexicans were not the only group to undergo repatriation!
Although little has been written on the subject, other immigrants voluntarily repatriated to their home countries under the same factors that Mexicans did during the 1930s. It is estimated that between 1890 and 1930, of the 25 million Europeans who entered the US, 10-12 million eventually repatriated.Between 1908 and 1922, 3,416,735 people classified as “aliens whose permanent residence has been in the U.S. and intend to reside permanently abroad” left the country. Three million immigrants left the country between 1900 and 1930, more than 7 times the number of Mexicans who repatriated during the 1930s. Large numbers returned home with their American-born children. Some 2 to 3 million Europeans repatriated each decade from 1910 to 1940. There were economic difficulties, political pressure, nationalism (particularly after WWI), and intense xenophobia. German schools were burned and the German language banned in a large number of states. The KKK had as many as 3 million members. Anti-immigrant hostility, most of it directed at those from eastern and Southern Europe, was widespread.
Between 1900 and 1935, some 25-50% of all immigrants repatriated. During the 1930s, while the number of foreign-born Mexicans dropped by 262,000, or 41%, the number of Germans declined by 371,000 (23%), Poles by 275,000 (22%), Czechs by 171,000 (23%), and the Irish by 41%! Between 1910 and 1920, the number of Germans dropped by a whopping 625,000, or 27%!! The Mexican decline in % (though not numerically) was more pronounced due to the closeness of the border, an option most Europeans did not have. Most aspects of the Mexican movement southward MATCHED the return of Europeans in motivation and circumstance, though the closeness of the Mexican border, the convenience of railroad connections, and the nomadic nature of employment to Mexicans, promoted a two-way traffic.
In a three-week period in 1931 in Los Angeles, the immigration agents questioned several thousand people across the county. During the El Monte raid, some 300 were stopped. In the City Plaza Raid, 400 people were detained and questioned by officers. 11 Mexicans, 5 Chinese and 1 Japanese were taken into custody. After complaints by the Mexican consulate and the Spanish paper “La Opinion”, Sheriff Watkins agreed to work only in small groups on the county’s outlying districts. According to Hoffman, “The federal deportation campaign and local repatriation campaign programs had blurred into a mass movement of Mexicans and Mexican Americans departing from the region.” Rafael de la Colina of the Mexican Consulate found nothing to criticize in repatriation, claiming “Allow me to express, in behalf of my government, our sincere appreciation for the work your welfare department
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".[2][3]