During the Great Depression, local and federal campaigns pressured or forced hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to leave the United States. Raids and removals occurred in cities including Los Angeles, Detroit and Chicago. Many deported people were United States citizens, including large numbers of children.

Family testimony, corridos and Spanish-language newspapers recorded raids, separation and involuntary return to an unfamiliar country. The episode later became important to Chicano literature exploring citizenship, borders and the repeated exclusion of Mexican-descended communities.