(a) Beginning in 1929, government authorities and certain private sector entities in California and throughout the United States undertook an aggressive program to forcibly remove persons of Mexican ancestry from the United States.Governor Schwarzenegger signed S.B. 670 last year, but has just vetoed a new bill that would have allowed victims of the program to seek civil damages. Meanwhile, attacks on Mexican-American U.S. citizens for "immigration violations" still continue--consistent with the increasingly polarized debate over immigration reform.
(b) In California alone, approximately 400,000 American citizens and legal residents of Mexican ancestry were forced to go to Mexico.
(c) In total, it is estimated that two million people of Mexican ancestry were forcibly relocated ... approximately 1.2 million of whom had been born in the United States ...
(d) Throughout California, massive raids were conducted on Mexican-American communities, resulting in the clandestine removal of thousands of people, many of whom were never able to return to the United States, their country of birth ...
(f) These raids targeted persons of Mexican ancestry, with authorities and others indiscriminately characterizing these persons as "illegal aliens" even when they were United States citizens or permanent legal residents.
Top 10 Civil Liberties News Stories - August 22, 2006 Edition
By Tom Head, About.com
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bill Supporting Victims of Wrongful Mexican Repatriation
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) signs a piece of legislation as cameras look on.
Image courtesy of the California State Senate.
The Hazleton ordinance isn't even close to being the first "neutral" effort targeting Latinos. As the California State Legislature declared last year in S.B. 670, the Apology Act:
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- Senate Debates New Wiretapping Legislation
- ACLU Challenges Anti-Immigrant Hazleton Ordinance in Court
- Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bill Supporting Victims of Wrongful Mexican Repatriation
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