But about 60 percent of the people in the Mexican repatriation drive were actually U.S. citizens of Mexican descent.
Would you give us an overview of the scope of the mass deportations or the repatriation of the 1930s?
BALDERRAMA: There was not a federal deportation act, even though in some of the literature, it makes reference to that.
Now, there was the development of a deportation desk from LA County relief agencies going out and recruiting Mexicans to go to Mexico.
GROSS: So what were some of the ways that Mexicans in the U.S. were pressured to leave?.
And I think another factor is just waking up and looking at the newspaper, seeing that there's raids.
I think, also, it's very disrespectful of the contributions that this community has made of Mexican nationals and American citizens of Mexican descent. »