On this day, 26 February 1931, the La Placita raid took place in Los Angeles, when armed immigration officers, some in military uniforms, sealed off the popular La Placita Park in a Mexican-American neighbourhood.
They demanded everyone in the park to present their papers, and then arrested dozens of people, later deporting many. The raids were part of what became known as the “Mexican repatriation”, which were an illegal series of raids and deportations of up to 1.8 million people, most of whom were actually US citizens who had been born and raised in the US.
In 1929 President Herbert Hoover had decided to try to “create jobs” for white workers during the depression by removing those deemed to be “other”, namely Mexicans and US citizens of Mexican descent. The practice continued, with the support of labour unions, under the presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt up until 1936.
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Pictured: relatives wave goodbye to a train of 1500 deportees https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1359755820876231/?type=3