“The time a president deported 1 million Mexican Americans for supposedly stealing U.S. job” is an article posted by Diane Bernard in the Washington Post Website. Bernard brings to light the history that the current people know very little about, and creates for us a sense of deja vu to the way current day president, Donald Trump, has created this idea that Mexicans are thieves taking a hold of U.S. jobs.
Diane Bernard talks about the event that happened decades ago, back in 1931, in which President Hoover launched a program that legally deported over 1 million Mexicans back to Mexico. One of the most critical statements she makes is that 60% of these people were U.S. citizens. Law enforcement worked daily rounding up people in parks, hospitals, markets and crammed them into trains. Documentation was hardly ever asked for, but were mostly targeted by the color of their skin. Many of these people were robbed, had no medical care, and were even victims to discrimination in Mexico for being incapable of speaking Spanish.
Bernard states, “The raid came at the height of the Great Depression and on the heels of President Herbert Hoover’s announcement of a national program of ‘American jobs for real Americans” — code words for “ ‘getting rid of Mexicans,’ who weren’t considered ‘real’ Americans,’” (Bernard, 2018). President Hoover also stated that Mexicans were overwhelming welfare offices but was later seen as unjustifiable when evidence showed Mexicans were less than 10% of the relief recipients across the U.S. These statements also direct us to President Donald Trump who signed the executive order, “ Buy America, Hire American” that enforces and administers immigration laws to protect U.S. workers, showing the similarity between both presidents.
The discrimination and treatment these people suffered in 1931 was based off of the opinion of one president who believed the Mexican population were to blame for the bad economy during the Great Depression and led to a deportation of U.S. citizens as well. How long must this discrimination last? It has been decades history is being repeated. Mexican-Americans are being discriminated by the color of our skins. They are being blamed for the loss of jobs while many of us take the jobs most Americans simply do not want. This history is hidden for a reason, it is never mentioned for a reason.
When comparing this event that happened decades ago to President Trump’s action on immigration, I can see an enormous resemblance in the way we are being targeted and criminalized. Bernard interviewed Joseph Dunn, a former Democratic state senator who researched this information, who had this to say,“‘But I can see us slipping down this same path with Trump’s approach,” said Dunn. “Democracy is fragile.’” (Bernard, 2018) It is an irony that democracy represents the power of the people and yet it is fragile. Americans have the right to stand-up to this kind of discrimination yet many coward because of fear of what the government can do. It is time to stand up and serve justice for those people who never had a voice back in 1931.
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