The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors issued a formal apology Tuesday, for the repatriation of nearly 2 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans who were forced to relocate south of the border during the Depression years.
“L.A. was very much part of these official roundups,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina. “There’s a point in time where the only thing you can do is offer an apology.”
An estimated 400,000 U.S. citizens and legal residents were removed from California alone, following raids on Mexican-American communities who were constrained to abandon property, which was later sold to sponsor the cost for transportation to Mexico, Molina said.
“United States citizens and legal residents were separated from their families and country and were deprived of their livelihood and United States Constitutional rights, and many were never reunited with their families,” Molina added. “Regrettably, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors participated in these efforts.”
In 2003, politicians and legal advocates fought to win a formal apology, and in 2005, a bill signed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decreed an apology to the Mexican Americans who were illegally deported to Mexico between 1929 and 1944.
A commemorative plaque will be unveiled at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, on Main Street, Sunday.
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