The Mexican Repatriation was the repatriation and deportation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to Mexico from the United States during the Great Depression between 1929 and 1939. Estimates of how many were repatriated range from 355,000 to 2 million. The policy, authorized by President Herbert Hoover whose administration scapegoated Mexican Americans for the Great Depression, was instituted as a means to free up jobs for Americans suffering financially. The vast majority of formal deportations happened between 1930 and 1933 as part of Hoover's policy which was first mentioned in his 1930 State of the Union Address. After Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, both formal and voluntary deportation fell for all immigrants, but especially for Mexicans. The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration also instituted more lenient policies towards Mexican immigrants, especially for well-settled ones, even if some of them were technically in the country illegally.
An estimated forty to sixty percent of those repatriated were citizens of the United States, overwhelmingly children. While supported by the federal government, actual deportations and repatriations were 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. Some of the repatriates hoped that they could escape the economic crisis which was caused by the Great Depression. The government formally deported at least 82,000 people, with the vast majority occurring between 1930 and 1933 as part of Hoover's policy first mentioned in his 1930 State of the Union Address. The Mexican government also encouraged repatriation with the promise of free land.
Widely scapegoated for exacerbating the overall economic downturn of the Great Depression, many Mexicans lost their jobs. Mexicans were further targeted because of "the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios.".
Mexican-American migration before the Great Depression
At the beginning of the Great Depression, there were two primary sources of US residents of Mexican descent: territorial changes after the Mexican–American War, and migration.
Cession of Mexican territory
With the U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War, the Gadsden Purchase, and the annexation of the Republic of Texas, much of the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming, were ceded to the United States. This land was roughly half of Mexico's pre-war territory.
80,000-100,000 Mexican citizens lived in this territory, and were promised U.S. citizenship under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican–American War. About 3,000 decided to move to Mexican territory. Mexicans who remained in the U.S. were considered U.S. citizens and were counted as "white" by the U.S. census until 1930, but a growing influx of immigrants combined with local racism led to the creation of a new category in the census of that year.
Emigration from Mexico
Mexican emigration to the United States was not significant until the construction of the railroad network between Mexico and the Southwest, which provided employment and eased transit. Increasing demands for agricultural labor, and the violence and economic disruption of the Mexican Revolution, also caused many to flee Mexico during the years of 1910-1920 and again during the Cristero War in the late 1920s.
Records indicate that between the years of 1901 to 1920, there was a number of 200,000 unlawful Mexican immigrants settled in the country. A study done by Gratton and Merchant indicates that approximately 500,000 Mexicans entered the United States during the 1920's and pre-repatriation era, per US records.
American employers often encouraged such emigration. At the onset of the 20th century, "U.S. employers went so far as to make requests directly to the president of Mexico to send more labor into the United States" and hired "aggressive labor recruiters who work outside the parameters of the U.S." in order to recruit Mexican labor for jobs in industry, railroads, meatpacking, steel mills, and agriculture. This led to the existence of Mexican communities outside of the Southwest, in places like IndianaMichigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania to work in the steel industry (though the vast majority of Mexicans in the US remained in the Southwest).
As a Chicago-based steel company, The Inland Steel Company provided a substantial portion of its jobs to Mexicans, summing up to 18 percent of its total workforce.