Dean Johnson Cited in Public Radio Report on ‘Mexican Repatriation'
An article by Dean Kevin R. Johnson on "The Forgotten ‘Repatriation' of Persons of Mexican Ancestry and Lessons for the ‘War on Terror'" is quoted extensively in a report by Southern California Public Radio station KPCC on the Depression-era push by the federal government to "repatriate" Mexicans and Mexican-Americans to Mexico. Tens of thousands were sent to Mexico from the Los Angeles area, where a monument to the victims of the "Mexican Repatriation" recently was unveiled.
Dean Johnson's article, published in Pace Law Review in 2005, notes that many of those deported were United States citizens. "Although ‘repatriation' is the term often used to refer to the campaign to remove hundreds of thousands of persons of Mexican ancestry from the United States in the 1930s, it is not entirely accurate," wrote Dean Johnson. "Federal, state, and local governments worked together to involuntarily remove many U.S. citizens of Mexican ancestry, many of whom were born in the United States. These citizens cannot be said to have been ‘repatriated' to their native land."
Kevin R. Johnson is Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis School of Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.
"The Forgotten ‘Repatriation' of Persons of Mexican Ancestry and Lessons for the ‘War on Terror'"