"Decade of Betrayal": How the U.S. Expelled Over a Half Million U.S. Citizens to Mexico in 1930s

Never during my 12 years of public school did I hear one mention of this piece of our sinister history. Nor the attack on black Wall Street until I went to college. And we know the saying- if we don't know our history, we are doomed to repeat it.

This is so shameful.

My Nana was 8 when she experienced this. She lost her mother 4 years before this and her father had to move to Mexico with 5 children. Along with his parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews. Even though most were born in the U.S to immigrant parents.l, they were shipped on buses & trains. My Nana talked about having a hard life in Mexico. She didn't even know Spanish. She returned to the U.S. by the age of 24. She is the strongest woman I've ever met. She lived to be 96 years old. I never knew about this until I read her obituary, she never liked to speak about the hard times she faced. I thank God for her prayers, her Faith & all of her kisses & long hugs. She was always the last one to let us go. She is missed and incredibly loved.

In Brownsville, Texas, i learned about our Mexican America history. I learned about Corky Gonzalez and his poem "I am Joaquin," and so many injustices done to our peoples.

American public schools sweep these things under the rug.

FYI—It’s not deportation when the people being kicked out their homes were already here before the Anglos arrived.

My great grandparents were “deported” along with my grandma and siblings during this evil program in 1931. They were all legally here.

My grandparents were deported during this time, my grandfather worked for the Santa Fe railroad, and owned property in San Bernardino. He lost everything because he was deported by force after living in California for over 30 years. My mother was born in California, but because she was just a child, I was born in Mexico, when my mother told me this story, it bound my blood to think she and my family went through this. I teach my children on the injustices that are still present, especially now that Trump has let loose the racists whites that are anti immigrant, even though the Hispanic community has contributed to the building of this nation.

I think this video has shown me more history about Latinos in the U.S. than all of my years in K-12 education in public schools where I really learned NOTHING about Latino History. Thank you for this video.

OMG!! How horrible!! This makes me very emotional as a Mexican I never knew this we were never taught about this in History books. Racism, Xenophobia, discrimination and the stealing of Mexican lands is a tragedy that has happened to Mexicans due to American culture/consciousness/ Ideology.

Next time someone says go back to your country show them this we belong in this land more than anyone does don’t let them call you foreign in your own land

It's important to know our history and tragic mistakes. I had never learned this before. Thank you for sharing this piece of history.

The things they don't teach in school. I feel like we covered so much history about the American Revolution, Civil War, WWII, a little bit of Vietnam, and a few things here and there. But this was never mentioned during my 12 years of education. It took a Chicano Literature class on my last semester of my BA degree for me to learn about this! Im so angry at not only what took place but at the fact that it took me so long to learn about it. I read the book in about 1 week and did a presentation on it for my class. Im happy to know that 25 students in that class now know about it and hopefully they'll tell others.

There’s a movie with Jennifer Lopez in it when she was in her 20s so this movie is already kind of old but it’s a really good movie about what happened in the 30s to these Mexican American people. The movie is called Mi Familia.

so they went to the man's workplace and took him right out of the field, (so he was not on welfare or whatever it was called then). Then even the KIDS went to jail? Thats awful.

Wow, I never knew. So much of this country was part of Mexico before there was a USA & was named Mexico for us, the Mexica/Meche/Moche ppl *Moche/Moses or Ppl of Moses* & before it was named that, All the continents of The Americas belonged to all indigenous ppls who so many forget that includes the Mexican, South American & “black” American descendants 💯 All of us with the known native Americans & Canadian indigenous were ALL ONE FAMILY, ONE PPL WHO LIVED ALL OVER OUR LANDS, TURTLE ISLAND & MOVED ANYWHERE ON IT AS THERE WAS NO BORDER. ONLY tribal territories & we all mingled with each other.

There's a reason this American history isn't taught in most US public schools. And, according to Ron Desantis and those who agree with him, they believe that teaching this American history in public school will cause white students to feel uncomfortable. This is why Critical Race Theory is banned. At least racists aren't telling Mexican Americans to "get over it". I hope this channel continues to grow and keep uncovering America's hidden history.

As a 40 yr old white American man I want to know why I was never taught this or ran across something about it, I mean I know why, they tried keeping it on the DL, “Down Low” instead of teaching us are history so we don’t repeat it and make the same mistakes as our ancestors!

Democracy Now, thank you so much for the work you do.

They also did it again in the 50's on something they called operation wet back. It was heartbreaking to see Mexican Americans in México looking for their mothers and fathers, grandparents many of who were picked off street and never seen again.