“USA TODAY reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, some provided by Dunn and MALDEF and others found at the National Archives. They cite officials saying the deportations lawfully focused on illegal immigrants while the exodus of legal residents was voluntary. Yet they suggest people of Mexican ancestry faced varying forms of harassment and intimidation:
• Raids. Officials staged well-publicized raids in public places. On Feb. 26, 1931, immigration officials suddenly closed off La Placita, a square in Los Angeles, and questioned the roughly 400 people there about their legal status…
• Jobs withheld. Prodded by labor unions, states and private companies barred non-citizens from some jobs…
• Public aid threatened. County welfare offices threatened to withhold the public aid of many Mexican-Americans… Memos show they also offered to pay for trips to Mexico but sometimes failed to provide adequate food. An immigration inspector reported in a November 1932 memo that no provisions were made for 78 children on a train. Their only sustenance: a few ounces of milk daily…
• Forced departures. Some of the deportees who were moved by train or car had guards to ensure they left the USA and others were sent south on a ‘closed-body school bus’ or ‘Mexican gun boat,’ memos show.”