A representative of the Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, California, asked publicly that no work is given to a Mexican while there was a white man unemployed.
The warning came from George Clements, and took place in an America mired in the Great Depression of the 30s, but it is a phrase that currently not surprising.
In the 1930s, under President Herbert Hoover and in the context of severe economic crisis, United States deported more than a million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans .
More than 60% of them were legal residents in the country.
So, rhetoric tycoon and presidential candidate for the Republican Party Donald Trump, on illegal immigration his plan to deport all undocumented immigrants if it reaches the White House, brings painful memories for Mexicans.
Could history repeat itself?
A unconstitutional measure
To Francisco Balderrama, professor of Chicano studies and history at California State University in Los Angeles and author of the book Decade of Betrayal: Repatriation in the 1930′s (“Decade treason repatriation 30 “.), it can establish a connection between what happened then and the current discourse of Trump on immigrants
A deportation policy that affected thousands of families, barely left a mark on the American history books.
“More than one million Mexicans and Mexican Americans were expelled from the United States in those years. Many Mexican nationals had been in the country 25 or 30 years and had papers, “says Balderrama, whose work now deceased co-written with Raymond Rodriguez is one of the main bibliographical references on the subject.
” The Most Mexican Americans were younger, were the children of Mexican nationals and, according to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution had US citizenship. “
” The expulsion was unconstitutional, You can not deport a US citizen “ says the professor.
raids and expulsions
In a context of high unemployment due to the Great Depression, the US greatly increased the rejection of foreign workers, especially Mexicans.
Many Americans began looking for work previously condieraban for Mexicans, generating reactions rejection.
Currently, the discourse of Trump I creek in certain sectors for that strategy to appeal to the same ghosts.
“I think Trump is playing with the fears of the working class “ says Balderrama.
Discrimination grew and the authorities did not do anything about it but decided to start with the deportations, which were organized especially at the local and state level.
raids were made, local police arrested all those who did not have their papers in order or simply had the appearance of Mexican .
“The legal counsel warned that only the federal government had the right to deport, so decided to call repatriation,” he tells BBC Balderrama.
“Obviously there were raids federal government Herbert Hoover, “he says,” but 70-80% of the expulsions did local authorities and counties, businesses, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and other cities.
“In Los Angeles was how do battle for the Mexican population it was substantial, like today. At the local level, in the county, they decided to train up recruiting people to leave, the county argued that too much money is spent on Mexican families, which was not true.
“Not only occurred in southwestern not only in California, the campaign came to Alaska,” says Balderrama.
The 14th amendment
The expulsion of the children of Mexicans under the 14th Amendment US citizens have links directly to one of the proposals of Trump. delete this rule
See also :. Who are the “anchor babies” that Trump wants to take citizenship
Trump is not the first person to publicly withdraw the proposed amendment
“Encouraging violation of the 14th amendment brings to mind the words of the 70s of then Senator Bob Dole, who wanted to change, “said Balderrama.
” It seems he was right when harbored whites, now want to change because is for people of color, but there is a problem because the population is of all colors, “he says.
Repair and justice
Do not know the details of what happened to all those people who were forced to return to Mexico.
As they tell historians, met with Mexico also in crisis and had to deal with discrimination against Mexicans.
In conclusion, they were rejected in US for being Mexican and Mexico for Americans.
More than 85 years later, there has been little repair, although there are groups who insist that justice is done.
The state of California was the first to apologize to approve the “Decree of apology for the program of repatriation of Mexicans from the decade of the 30″ in 2005.
With this document, California officially recognized “the unconstitutional expulsion and forced emigration from US citizens and legal residents of Mexican origin” and apologized to the California residents “for fundamental violations of their basic civil liberties and constitutional rights violations during the period of unlawful deportation and forced emigration.”
However, the state legislature did not approve funds for compensation affected.
Meanwhile, the federal government has not apologized.
The campaign for justice continues, although it is becoming more complex by the gradual death of the protagonists of that deportation, as indicated Balderrama.
“What happened in the 30 is very significant for those who came after, can see a parallel there are a lot of resonance of the past,” says the professor, who regrets that figures like Trump talk about mass deportations to win votes.
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