Mexican "Repatriation"

What is affected

Livelihoods

Type of violation

Forced eviction

Date

23 May 1929

Region

NA [ North America ]

Country

United States

Location

1848-occupied and annexed northern Mexico; i.e., much of the present-day states of California, Texas, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Affected persons

	Total 500000
	Men 0
	Women 0
	Children 0
	Indigenous

Proposed solution

Details

Development

Forced eviction

Costs

Duty holder(s) /responsible party(ies)

	State
	Local

Brief narrative

In Wikipedia:

The Mexican Repatriation was the repatriation or deportation of between 300,000 and 2 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from the United States during the Great Depression between 1929 and 1939. Forty to sixty percent were citizens of the United States, overwhelmingly children.[9]

Although repatriation was supported by the federal government, it was largely organized and encouraged by city and state governments, often with support from local private entities. However, voluntary repatriation was far more common than formal deportation and federal officials were minimally involved.[5] Some of the repatriates hoped that they could escape the economic crisis of the Great Depression.[10] The government formally deported at least 82,000 people,[11] with the vast majority occurring between 1930 and 1933.[5][12] The Mexican government also encouraged repatriation with the promise of free land.[8][13]: 185–186

Some scholars contend that the large number of deportations between 1929 and 1933 were part of a policy by the administration of Herbert Hoover, who had implemented stricter immigration policies.[5] The vast majority of formal deportations happened between 1930 and 1933, as part of a Hoover policy first mentioned in his 1930 State of the Union Address.[5] After Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933, his administration implemented softer immigration policies, and both formal and voluntary deportations reduced.[5] Widely scapegoated for exacerbating the overall economic downturn of the Great Depression, many Mexicans lost their jobs.[14] Mexicans were further targeted because of the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios.[15]

Estimates of the number who moved to Mexico between 1929 and 1939 range from 300,000 to 2 million,[5] with most estimates placing the number at between 500,000 and 1 million.[11] The highest estimate comes from Mexican media reports at the time.[6]: 150 The vast majority of repatriation occurred in the early 1930s, with the peak year in 1931.[13]: 49 It is estimated that there were 1,692,000 people of Mexican origin in the US in 1930, which was reduced to 1,592,000 in 1940.[5] Up to one-third of all Mexicans in the US were repatriated by 1934.[15]

Julian Nava and Abraham Hoffman, (2018). Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929–1939. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-3778-5. Torrie Hester, (June 30, 2020), The History of Immigrant Deportations, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.647, ISBN 978-0-19-932917-5. Adam Goodman, (2020). The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants. Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvs1g9p1. ISBN 978-0-691-20420-8. JSTOR j.ctvs1g9p1. Jamie R. Aguila, (March 2007). Mexican/U.S. Immigration Policy Prior to the Great Depression. The Journal of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Diplomatic History. 31 (2): 207–225. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00612.x. Brian Gratton and Emily Merchant, (December 2013). Immigration, Repatriation, and Deportation: The Mexican-Origin Population in the United States, 1920–1950 (PDF). Vol. 47, no. 4. The International migration review. pp. 944–975. Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodriguez, (January 1, 2006). Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. UNM Press. ISBN 9780826339737. Eric L. Ray, (2005). Mexican Repatriation and the Possibility for a Federal Cause of Action: A Comparative Analysis on Reparations. The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review. 37 (1): 171–196. ISSN 0884-1756. JSTOR 40176606. Abraham Hoffman, (January 1, 1974). Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929–1939. VNR AG. ISBN 9780816503667. [1][2][3][4]: fn 20 [5][6]: 330 [7][8]: xiii [6]: 150 Laura D. Gutiérrez, (January 1, 2020). Trains of Misery: Repatriate Voices and Responses in Northern Mexico during the Great Depression. Journal of American Ethnic History. 39 (4): 13–26. doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.39.4.0013. ISSN 0278-5927. S2CID 226667916. F. Arturo Rosales, (January 1, 2007). Repatriation of Mexicans from the US, in Soto, Lourdes Diaz (ed.). The Praeger Handbook of Latino Education in the U.S. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 400–403. ISBN 9780313338304. Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union | The American Presidency Project. www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Saúl Alanís and Fernando Enciso, (2017). They Should Stay There: The Story of Mexican Migration and Repatriation During the Great Depression. Chapel Hill. ISBN 978-1469634258. OCLC 970604385. Sharon Ann Navarro and Armando Xavier Mejia, (January 1, 2004). Latino Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. p. 23. ISBN 9781851095230. Vicki L. Ruiz, (1998). Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 27–29. ISBN 978-0-19-513099-7.

Costs

€ 0

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