Mexican Repatriation: The Forgotten Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America
The deportation of Mexican Americans during the Great Depression is an oft forgotten act of ethnic cleansing that devastated communities and exposed deeply rooted racial scapegoating in America
For a nation that has long celebrated itself as a land of opportunity, American history reveals a far more troubling reality.
For centuries, those whose ancestors first cultivated these lands long before the arrival of white European settlers have found themselves betrayed by a nation with the audacity to purport to herald equality and freedom.
During the Great Depression, one such betrayal arrived in the form of targeted policies that devastated Mexican American communities—people who had deeper roots in this country than any of the so-called Americans who violently colonized the land.
Known as Mexican Repatriation, this was not just about deporting immigrants. It was a full-scale assault on U.S.-born citizens, a massive violation of civil rights that tore families apart and left lasting scars on Mexican American communities.
Between 1929 and 1936, upwards of a million people of Mexican descent were forcibly expelled from the United States.
What’s even more shocking is that at least 60% of those deported were U.S. citizens—many of them children born on American soil.
These weren’t undocumented immigrants being deported for the crime of existing on occupied terra firma; they were American citizens, deported simply because they had Mexican blood.
The Targeted Expulsion of the Mexican People
These weren’t foreigners—not even by the standards of the occupying entity.
Many were descendants of Indigenous populations in places like California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, whose ancestors tilled these lands long before they were usurped by the United States.
Incidentally, the ownership of these lands was determined through agreements made between occupying European parties, without regard for the people of the land.
Put simply, the very people whose families had been rooted here for centuries were deported so that white Americans could safeguard their jobs during the economic crisis.
It’s a bitter irony that still resonates today, epitomized by the infamous "they took our jobs" stereotype satirized by South Park.
Of course, this stereotype, like all of those conjured by the best and whitest this country has to offer, employs a uniquely American brand of ignorant, oblivious cognitive dissonance.
On the one hand, Mexican Americans are labeled as lazy and unwilling to work, but on the other, they’re vilified for allegedly stealing jobs from white workers (this, despite the fact that it’s job creators who manipulate the market for cheap, migrant labor).
The stupidity of these clashing stereotypes makes it clear: this mass deportation was never about jobs—it was about scapegoating people of color to uphold white privilege.
The Role of Local Governments in Mass Deportation
As unemployment soared during the Great Depression, Mexican Americans became the convenient scapegoats.
States and local governments, often with federal approval, organized raids and deportations under the false pretense of protecting jobs for “real” Americans.
The truth is, it was a xenophobic campaign that had less to do with jobs and more to do with racial purity.
Los Angeles became the epicenter of this racist crusade. In 1931, one of the most notorious incidents, La Plaza raid, occurred when authorities surrounded a downtown park, corralling 400 Mexican Americans—men, women, and children alike—into buses destined for the border.
Some were sent to a country they had never even seen.
This wasn’t just a violation of human rights; it was a grim reminder of how quickly the rights of people of color can be stripped away when it serves white interests.
To be sure, the mass expulsion of Mexican Americans wasn’t just limited to California.
Across the country, Mexican American communities were decimated. In Texas, the Mexican-born population was slashed by one-third, and between 1930 and 1940, the number of people of Mexican origin in the U.S. dropped by 100,000.
Families were torn apart—parents deported while their American-born children were left behind. In some cases, children were orphaned by a system seemingly designed to erase their existence.
Economic and Cultural Devastation
The deportations weren’t just morally wrong—they were economically shortsighted.
In one of the greatest ironies of the era, as the Dust Bowl ravaged the Midwest and made it nearly impossible for many Americans to produce agriculture, the U.S. was busy deporting Mexican Americans, the very people who had generational experience in farming these lands.
These families were descendants of those who had cultivated and sustained agriculture on these lands for centuries, long before the U.S. imposed borders were built.
Rather than potentially utilize this invaluable expertise, the U.S. government expelled them, leaving American agriculture in an even more precarious state.
This glaring oversight would be seemingly corrected during the Bracero Program. Initiated in 1942, the program invited Mexican laborers back to work the very fields from which they’d been previously expelled.
Despite this temporary remedy, the U.S. would ultimately reverse course yet again, this time under the exceedingly racist “Operation Wetb*ck.”
In addition to the economic catastrophe, Mexican Americans also lost their homes, properties, and livelihoods.
According to California’s 2005 Apology Act, many were defrauded of their personal and real property, which was sold off by local authorities to cover deportation costs.
Imagine being forcibly removed from your home and then billed for your own deportation. The cruelty was incomprehensible.
History Repeating Itself
The Mexican Repatriation wasn’t just an isolated event—it set a precedent for how the U.S. government would handle Latino communities during times of economic instability. Fast-forward to more recent history, and we see the same tactics being employed.
During the Obama administration, mass deportations of Latinos reached unprecedented levels, earning him the nickname “Deporter-in-Chief.”
As in the past, these mass removals were framed as a means of protecting American jobs, making the parallel to the Mexican Repatriation undeniable.
During the same period, states like Arizona introduced legislation like SB 1070, which allowed police to stop anyone “appearing” to be in the country illegally, a clear throwback to repatriation acts.
Later, under the Trump administration, these practices became even more inhumane.
Trump’s border policies introduced family separations, where children were forcibly taken from their parents at the border and held in detention centers, many in cages.
Children were lost in the system, and some tragically died due to neglect and inadequate care while in custody.
Trump weaponized xenophobia and fear to justify his cruel immigration policies, using immigrants as scapegoats for the country’s economic and societal challenges.
Unfortunately, these practices did not end when Trump left office. Despite campaign promises of reform, the Biden administration continued several of Trump’s harsh border policies.
Family separations persist, and the infamous “kids in cages” situation remains unresolved.
Though touted as a more humane alternative, Biden’s approach to immigration policy has mirrored that of his GOP predecessor, with policies that have led to the perpetuation of harm against migrant and indigenous communities.
Presidential hopeful, VP Kamala Harris, has also perpetuated this narrative. Lately, her song and dance on immigration has hit some xenophobic notes, echoing the fear-mongering tactics often used by Republicans to stoke unfounded fears.
The Cycle of Racial Scapegoating
For centuries, settlers invaded, massacred, enslaved, and deported—on land that was never theirs to begin with.
They then built an economy like a house of cards, driven by speculation, buying on margin, and proliferating unchecked greed.
And when it all came crashing down? They didn’t hold themselves accountable.
Instead, they blamed Mexicans—the very people whose claim to these lands, rooted in ancestry and rich cultural history, far exceeds any false sense of entitlement white Americans could ever conjure up.
Meanwhile, xenophobia remains alive and well in American politics, with those of Indigenous blood still being painted as criminals, rapists, and invaders—despite being some of the most hardworking and underappreciated members of society.
The hypocrisy is staggering, but it’s all part of the same tired story; a feather in the cap of the American Way.