Latino History In the US Has Always Been Connected to Mass Deportations. Here’s Where It All Started

If there is anything as American as apple pie, it would be mass deportations. As a nation, we have often leaned into this tactic to make some of the most hateful among us feel safe. Throughout history, the federal government has leaned into the dangerous practice of large-scale operations to arrest and remove people of certain identities, often sweeping up US citizens in the process. Let’s discuss how the American government has repeatedly put citizens at risk to deliver on inhumane immigration policies.

America has a long relationship with mass deporting Latinos starting in 1929

The Great Depression was a horrible time for most of humanity. The stock market collapse in 1929 ushered in a time of financial uncertainty that left families destitute. Without consistent work and paychecks, millions of Americans lined up for food banks, desperate to get enough food for their families. While the New Deal was giving jobs to Americans, Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Latinos were cut out and targeted instead.

At the same time, the US government got to work finding a villain in the Latino population. This is one of the first coordinated mass deportation campaigns by the federal government. Much like today, agents were tasked with rounding up and deporting as many Mexicans as possible. The Mexican Repatriation effort was prejudiced from the beginning, and a manhunt for anyone who looked Mexican was underway.

Agents targeted Latino people in general by going to workplaces, hospitals, and public parks. Anyone who appeared to be Mexican was arrested and deported. It is estimated that as many as 2,000,000 people were arrested during this campaign. Sixty percent of the people caught up in the mass deportation effort were US citizens. The government coerced and forced people born in the country to renounce their citizenship to deport them.

The mass deportation aggression against all Latinos in the US lasted for ten years until 1939. This was the start of World War II and the end of the Great Depression. However, this is not the end of the festering hate towards the Latino community.

At one point, the government invited people to be deported later

By 1942, the US faced a staggering labor shortage with men deployed in Europe to fight in World War II. The Bracero Program, a formal agreement between the US and Mexico, made it easier for people to get jobs on American farms. The jobs promised fair wages and good living conditions to support the influx of Mexican laborers to the US.

Instead, Mexican laborers faced subpar wages and experienced awful living conditions. Many experienced wage theft from the white landowners who exploited the laborers. Laborers were originally offered a minimum wage of $0.30 an hour. The Bracero Program was in effect from 1942 to 1964. Yet, a mass deportation campaign was bubbling a decade before the end of the Bracero Program.

On July 15, 1954, the federal government again launched “Operation Wetback.” The mass deportation campaign once again focused on anyone who looked or sounded Mexican. While it is not known how many citizens were deported, the US government did claim to deport 1.3 million people during “Operation Wetback.”

Historians agree and have been able to confirm some of the cases of citizens getting caught up in the post-WWII mass deportation. Once again, American citizens, sometimes multiple generations deep, were arrested and deported for looking Mexican.

We are living during another mass deportation campaign

This isn’t a hot take or a sudden revelation. Since he won the 2024 election, President Donald Trump promised to target and terrorize the immigrant and Latino communities. Much like the rest of the Trump administration, this mass deportation operation lacks rigorous oversight and is absent of serious people leading. Yet, the damage they are doing and the trauma they are causing is real and will be felt for generations.

The oversight into how the arrests and deportations are happening remains haphazard at best. The military tactics being performed by the immigration agents are less about the actual arrests and largely just about making Latinos and immigrants live in fear. In short, like so many other positions, policies, and decisions from this administration, the cruelty is the point.

The number of people arrested and deported by the current administration through October 2025 is 225,757. That is more than double the number of people who were arrested in 2024. The overzealous immigration enforcement has, once again, put Latinos at risk of arrest regardless of immigration status.

In that time, more than 170 US citizens have been arrested and detained by immigration officials. The Supreme Court’s decision to allow racial profiling of Latinos for immigration arrests is a dangerous decision that will likely only exacerbate this number. The decision is a nod to America’s long history of targeting Latinos, regardless of immigration status, for deportation. A use of governmental force aimed at injecting fear and trauma into our communities.