Mexican Americans During The New Deal

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The raft of measure implemented under ‘The New Deal’ helped to keep hope alive to millions of Americans during the great depression. However, it deepened social injustices to the majority of minorities. President Roosevelt’s Republican Party gave a blind eye to racial matters while subjecting Mexican immigrants to harsh labor conditions with very low wages. The government sought to deport Mexicans as a means of reducing expenditure on relief and other forms of social security. Black Americans were by-passed in giving out jobs in a well-orchestrated scheme carried out by Democratic Party leaders. Native Americans were ones again rounded back into tribal land with the pretense that individual land ownership had contributed to deterioration food production.
The Plight of …show more content…

The government rounded up Mexican Americans and forcefully deported them in an effort to reduce relief expenditure. The Roosevelt administration gave priority to white Americans. Whites from southern States escaping from drought to California forcefully took jobs from Mexican Americans. The Immigration rates for Mexican Americans dropped by half, many in the California area were rounded up in a planned deportation operation that involved citizens and security agencies. Mexican American wages fell to an all-time low. They formed unions to bargain for better pay and security for their jobs; this helped to ease their suffering (Davidson et al. 2015). Asian Americans faced deportation and segregation too. Asians were confined to their community settlements some known as ‘China Towns’ as a means of controlling their access to jobs. Some were rounded up and deported; a large number of Chinese workers were deported during the depression. The government reduced the number of immigrants from Asia, specifically China (Encyclopedia.com, Minorities and The Great Depression, 2003).
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