The program was started by the Hoover administration, supposedly as a way to get rid of illegal immigrants and open up jobs during the Depression. But the overwhelming majority of the people shipped to Mexico were American citizens or legal immigrants.
Some were able to return because they were drafted to fight for the United States in World War II.
A number of states, including California, continued the deportations even after the Roosevelt administration cut off funding for them. Los Angeles County was particularly active, with county supervisors overriding legality concerns raised by the county counsel.
Anybody that had a Mexican sounding name was literally taken from their beds and shipped to Mexico.
California Senator Joe Dunn, Democrat of Garden Grove has written two bills in an effort to acknowlege the wrong and make amends:
This year Dunn has introduced a bill that would create the redress commission, a window for lawsuits and a fund to pay reparations to surviving deportees who file claims.
He has also introduced a second bill that would express a state apology for the episode and require placement of a plaque commemorating the deportees.
Senator Dunn said:
"At the very least the state ought to, before the last survivor passes away, formally apologize for its role in the deportation of U.S. citizens for one reason -- they were of Mexican descent," he said.
More information:
NapaNews.com, an article.
Decade of Betrayal a book on the subject.
A web site
A rebuttal from the wingnut gallery at Free Republic:
My respect for Herbert Hoover has just increased 20 fold.
Makes you almost yearn for the "good old days", doesn't it?
Liberalism is truly a MENTAL DISORDER...
No way, NO apologies. Victims indeed!!! Life is tough, suck it in and get over it.
Cully-forn-eeuh's gropenfuhrer, wants to line the border with vigilantes to keep Mexicans out of his state. I think we should send him back to Austria or wherever Nazi sympathizers live these days.
