BANISHED CITIZENS

A tragedy of trampled human rights.

Historian Ramírez examines U.S. immigration policy by focusing on the plight of Mexicans during two decades following World War I. At a time of economic stress—first a postwar recession and then the Great Depression—Mexicans, whether or not they were citizens, were targeted as “economic scapegoats allegedly dependent on social services and unable to assimilate.” Fueled by “anti-Mexican hysteria,” 1 million ethnic Mexicans living in the U.S. were moved across the border to Mexico. Sixty percent were U.S. citizens, and most were women and children. Their removal from the U.S. was abetted by Mexico, where they were deemed assets in nation building and modernization. Drawing on oral histories, family papers, and interviews, Ramírez profiles four banished families who succeeded in reestablishing themselves in the U.S., whose experiences are representative of many others. Trinidad Rodriguez, for example, was 5 years old and a citizen—born in the U.S. to an American mother—when she was banished along with her stepfather. Reclaiming her citizenship for herself and her children took 47 years; they were considered undocumented because she could not produce her own birth certificate. Many banished Mexicans either left their birth certificates when they were hastily deported or found that the document had been confiscated by immigration authorities. Ramírez argues persuasively that punitive and irrational immigration law “racialized discourses, and banishment” profoundly affected generations of families. Banished U.S. citizens were unable to pass on their citizenship to their descendants, robbing families of financial inheritance, blocking their upward mobility, and cutting them off from political power. The profiled families recommend reparations that include official apologies from both the U.S. and Mexico, financial remunerations, and adding the history of coerced removal to school curricula.

A timely and powerful book that exposes a shameful history.