Mexican Immigration Research Paper

The American government, under president Hoover at the time, organized massive deportation campaigns that heavily impacted the well-being of both Mexican nationalists as well as American citizens of Mexican descent, seemingly casting a cloud of fear over the United States during the early 1930s. In the early twentieth century, the immigration of Mexicans to the United States was greater than ever. Due to the industrial growth at the time, Mexicans were invited by the United States government to immigrate to the United States and work. As many crossed the border in search of the higher wages that much of Mexico’s current economy could not offer them, this pattern of immigration was put into reverse by the Great Depression with the number of …show more content…
Mexican workers had reduced the cost of labor for the agriculture business, working at stoop labor which few Anglo-Americans, even the poorest, would perform. White trade unions inevitably blamed the Mexican immigrants for taking their jobs. As the depression worsened, so did anti-Mexican feelings. People were poor and that meant hard times for everyone. Mexicans became seen as competition as more and more European Americans began seeking jobs that were once considered to be only fit for Mexicans. Many believed that once Mexicans were expelled from the country that U.S. workers would find employment and the depression would end. Urban Mexican communities in cities such as Los Angeles began to rebel against their oppression. This caused a lot of anti-Mexican semitism. Mexicans were viewed as misfit, violent, and undesirable. Because of these negative stereotypes and the fear of unemployment, many Americans supported deportation, or as it was called repatriation. Repatriation implies to generously …show more content…
Mexico was a foreign land to some and they couldn’t even speak the language because as children if they used Spanish in school they were severely punished. Before they were deported, the Mexicans were inspected, searched and even humiliated to ensure they had no weapons, valuables or trace of how to return to the U.S. Due to all the deportations the roads connecting the U.S. to Mexico became treacherous. Mexico could do nothing to stop the repatriation. Families were separated, children born in the United States were given the choice of leaving with their family or staying in the U.S. as an orphan. Children who are too young to make a choice were forced to leave against their constitutional rights. Hatred towards Mexicans has been a continued theme. Repeated mistakes, concerning the well-being of Mexicans, by the U.S. government can be seen throughout history. Take for example the Mexican war, Operation Wetback under Eisenhower, Operation Gate Keeper under Clinton, and the increase of immigration enforcement that Bush proposed. The Mexican repatriation was a failure of the U.S. diplomacy, and was more so just a response by the government to ease the anxieties of distressed Europeans and Americans. As their rights as American born citizens were not taken into account, several Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans left the U.S. for Mexico in hopes that there they would find not only a refuge