'Decade of Betrayal': How the U.S. Expelled Over a Half Million American Citizens to Mexico in 1930s Francisco Balderrama - Democracy Now!
go to original February 28, 2017

President Donald Trump is slated to give his first presidential address to Congress today. Democratic lawmakers have begun giving their tickets away to immigrants as a protest against Trump’s push to increase deportations and to block residents from some Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

Well, this is not the first time people of Mexican descent have been demonized, accused of stealing jobs, and forced to leave the country. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, more than a million people residing in the United States were deported to Mexico - about 60 percent of them were U.S. citizens of Mexican descent.

We speak to the preeminent scholar on this often overlooked chapter of American history: Francisco Balderrama, professor of American history and Chicano studies at California State University, Los Angeles. He is co-author of "Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s."

Read the transcript at Democracy Now!

Related: In 1829, the U.S. Did Need a Wall from Mexico, to Keep People in! (The News)

Related: America Has Not Always Been as Welcoming to Refugees as We Think (The Conversation)

Related: Six Critical Reactions to Keep an Eye on President Trump’s First Address to Congress (The Washington Post)

Related: The U.S. Ban On Chinese Immigrants Led to Mexico's Largest Chinatown (The Huffington Post)

Related: President Trump’s Speech to Congress: 5 Foreign Policy Issues to Watch For (Vox)

Related: America’s Mass Deportation System Is Rooted in Racism (The Conversation)

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