Constructing Mexicans as Deportable Immigrants: Race, Disease, and the Meaning of “Public Charge”

Abstract

This article draws on archival records of events in California's Imperial Valley in 1940 that resulted in the arrests and deportation of a group of Mexican workers, some of whom were known union activists. The workers had entered the country lawfully and had lived in the United States for years. These immigrants were nevertheless vulnerable because they were receiving treatment for a communicable disease. This, according to immigration officials, rendered them “likely to become a public charge” (LPC), a deportable offense. Officially designating Mexicans as LPCs discredited them at the same time that it circumvented any discussion of possible violation of labor rights or civil rights, both key aspects of government-sponsored reform efforts underway at the time. Constructions of subjects as illegal, diseased, and threats to the nation-state came together in such a way that provided a surefire formula for marking Mexicans as deportable.

Keywords:

• immigration
• deportation
• Mexican
• labor
• public health

I thank Professors Ramón Gutiérrez and Gilberto Rosas for hosting the “New Frontiers of Race: Criminalities, Cultures, and Policing in the Global Era” at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, where I presented this paper. I also thank Nayan Shah, Ian Fusselman, the anonymous reviewers, and the editors of Identities for their helpful comments. Research for this article was made possible by a UCSD Latino Studies Research Initiative Grant, an Academic Senate Research Award, and UCSD librarians, especially Elliot Kanter and Rebecca Hyde, who are always willing to help track down sources, despite deep budget cuts.

Notes

1. Much of the narrative provided here is drawn from File number 55854/100 B, Immigration and Naturalization Records, Record Group 85, National Archives, Washington, DC, hereafter cited as 55854/100 B. For information on the Associated Farmers, see the work of lawyer, writer, and social reformer Carey McWilliams (1969), who described this growers' association as a “sort of committee of vigilantes.” McWilliams also documented the brutal living and working conditions of workers on the nation's increasingly large and industrialized farms.

2. See Immigration Act of 1891, 51st Congress, Sess. II (26 Statutes-at-Large 1084) and Markel and Stern (1999).

3. See Sec. 2, Immigration Act of 1882, 47th Congress, Sess. I (22 Statutes-at-Large 214).

4. See Sec. 11, Immigration Act of 1891, 51st Congress, Sess. II (26 Statutes-at-Large 1086).

5. Elsewhere, I discuss the challenges of working with these biased and fragmentary archival materials and reading the extant records against the grain (“Sources of Silence? New Approaches to Finding Latina/o Subjectivity in the Archives,” paper delivered at the Organization of American Historians, Seattle, WA, 2009). In addition to the references accompanying this article, I consulted the following sources but did not find information on the Imperial Valley cases: the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the San Diego Tribune; the Annual Reports of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Department of Public Health of California Biennial Reports; National Labor Relations Board Reports; the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) papers and the papers of Philip Murray and John Brophy, both CIO labor leaders, held at Catholic University; and records of the National Labor Board, the Labor Relations Board (Record Group 25), and the Department of Labor (Record Group 174), held at the National Archives. I also attempted, without success, to mine the Immigration and Naturalization Service files at the National Archives, where I first located the Imperial Valley story. Many INS records have been lost, withheld, or expunged.

6. I do not mean to imply that other records or sources are any less biased; only, in this case, following leads to find more information and different perspectives often proved unproductive. On the subjectivity of the archive, see Trouillot (1995), Burton (2003, 2005), and Stoler (2002).

7. For a full account of how Mexicans were made deportable through public health policies and medical racialization, see Molina (2006). Chapter four details public health officers' role.

8. Anthropologist Nicholas De Genova argues, “the legal production of migrant ‘illegality’ has never served simply to achieve the apparent goal of deportation, so much as to regulate the flow of Mexican migration in particular and to sustain its legally vulnerable condition of deportability, the possibility of deportation, the possibility of being removed from the space of the U.S.-nation state” (2005: 8).

9. McWilliams (1969: 231).

10. Senate Committee on Education and Labor (1940: 20100).

11. Quoted in Reisler (1973: 564).

12. For more on immigrants, unions, and the Popular Front, see Denning (1996).

13. See Andrés (2003: 250). Vargas cites collusion among growers, border agents, and the INS during the 1930s that could lead to deportations.

14. Quoted in Reisler, pp. 574–575.

15. See Andrés (2003: 268–269) and Guerin-Gonzales (1994:73).

16. See Andrés (2003: 264).

17. Senate Committee on Education and Labor (1940: 20188).

18. The Border Patrol would continue to cooperate with local law enforcement in the years to come. A notable example of this was its role in Operation Wetback, in 1954 in the Southwest, in which wide-scale roundups and deportations of Mexicans occurred through the coordinated and military-style efforts of the Border Patrol and local law enforcement. See Lytle Hernandez (2010).

19. Lytle Hernandez (2010: chapter 2).

20. See Auerbach (1966: chapter 7), Senate Committee on Education and Labor (1940), and United States, National Labor Board (1940).

21. Syphilis is marked by three stages. The primary stage can last 10–60 days, during which a chancre (lesion) on the point of contact may appear. In the absence of a secondary infection, the chancre may heal without treatment. In the next stage of syphilis, a rash may appear and the patient may experience headaches, body aches, fever, and indigestion. A latency period, during which symptoms of the disease may disappear, follows this secondary stage. For some, the latency period can last decades; for others, it might last just a few weeks. In either case, although the symptoms are latent, the bacteria remain active, attacking vital organs, lymph glands, bone marrow, and the central nervous system. The tertiary stage, which is characterized by external and interior tumors, is the most damaging. If syphilis spreads to the brain, it can lead to insanity and paralysis. Untreated, the disease can be fatal. See Jones (1981); “Health Service Tells How to Control Syphilis” (1939); “The Treatment of Syphilis” (1939).

22. Memorandum for the Secretary from Commissioner James Houghterling, 55854/100 B.

23. Acting on tips was standard procedure. Williams and Maxson made from twelve to thirty arrests a month; most were based on tips from informants. If a tip seemed reliable, the agent would contact his supervisor, who would get a warrant for an arrest. Such steps were taken in the arrest of Mike Gutierrez (Statement of Patrol Inspector Richard Williams, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B).

24. Statement of Chief Patrol Inspector Richard Wells, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B; Memorandum for the Secretary from Commissioner James Houghterling.

25. Statement of Assistant Inspector Edmund Gies, 4/17/1940, 55854/100 B.

26. Statement of Patrol Inspector Richard Williams, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B.

27. McWilliams (1969: 233–234).

28. It is not clear whether “alien” referred to foreign-born Mexicans, since there were also South Asians and Asians in the county.

29. Yingling referred to a recent survey that reported the following percent of populations in the United States as infected with syphilis: whites (8 percent), “negro” (13 percent), Mexican (10 percent), and Filipino (13 percent). Given that the specific survey is not cited by name, its veracity is uncertain. According to Imperial County Health Officer Dr. Fox, Dr. Yingling estimated that, in addition to the clinic patients in treatment, there might be another 500 cases of syphilis in the Imperial Valley (Statement of Dr. Warren Franklin Fox, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B).

30. Statement of Patrol Inspector Richard Williams, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B. For more on federal public health services during this period see Grey (1999).

31. Statement of Patrol Inspector Richard Williams, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B.

32. The patients' names are redacted, a common practice. It was more common for the sending agency to have done the redaction in advance of turning over the records (Statement of Patrol Inspector Richard Williams, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B).

33. Statement of Patrol Inspector Richard Williams, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B.

34. Memorandum for the Secretary from Commissioner James Houghterling, 55854/100 B.

35. Statement of Dr. Warren Franklin Fox, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B.

36. Statement of Chief Inspector Richard Wells, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B.

37. Senate Committee on Education and Labor (1940: 20106–20107)

38. Letter to District Director William Carmichael from Inspector in Charge, Dan Kuykendall, 4/13/1940, 55854/100 B.

39. Letter to District Director William Carmichael from Inspector in Charge, Dan Kuykendall, 4/13/1940, 55854/100 B.

40. Flyer, no date, 55854/100 B.

41. Petitions, letters, and telegrams to Frances Perkins from various unions, 55854/100 B.

42. Telegram to Frances Perkins, Received 4/27/1940, 55854/100 B.

43. Letter to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins from Thomas Brown, Secretary of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, 5/6/1940, 55854/100 B.

44. Foucault (1975)

45. Letter to Frances Perkins from Los Angeles residents, 4/22/1940, 55854/100 B.

46. Petitions to Frances Perkins, 55854/100 B. Petition signers included people from neighborhoods such as Hollywood, Santa Anita, and Arcadia (55854/100 B).

47. Petitions to Frances Perkins, 55854/100 B.

48. Such patterns persist. In 1994, an overwhelming majority of California voters supported Proposition 187, which proposed denying public services to undocumented immigrants. While ostensibly directed at all undocumented immigrants, within California's political and cultural climate, the proposition was understood as primarily targeting Mexicans. Courts immediately barred the proposition's implementation until all legal challenges were settled. Nonetheless, the nativism and racism directed at immigrants, especially Latinos and Latino Americans, during the Proposition 187 campaign and its aftermath resulted in immigrants' continued reluctance, and even refusal, to use public health services or government insurance. Fear of deportation, even among those who are documented residents or United States citizens, remains widespread.

49. For histories of El Congreso's activities during the Depression, see Ruiz (1987), Sánchez (1993), Gutiérrez (1995), and Molina (2006).

50. Telegram sent to Frances Perkins, 4/9/1940, 55854/100 B.

51. Van Deman's files were extensive. They were considered of sufficient importance to be transferred to the National Archives after his death (Cherny 2008).

52. Letter to District Director William Carmichael from Inspector in Charge, Dan Kuykendall, 4/13/1940, 55854/100 B.

53. Letter to District Director William Carmichael from Inspector in Charge, Dan Kuykendall, 4/13/1940, 55854/100 B. The woman's name was redacted in Van Demen's report.

54. Letter to District Director William Carmichael from Inspector in Charge, Dan Kuykendall, 4/13/1940, 55854/100 B.

55. See Cherny (2008: 28).

56. I base this estimate on the length of the transcripts, most of which are three to four pages.

57. Associated Farmers officials often held additional positions of power. The newspaper, Rural Observer, ran repeated exposés of them. One article predicted that LaFollette's committee would finally reveal just how powerful and high-placed the Associated Farmers leadership was: “The Associated Farmer story, when exposed, will start at the top and stay pretty close to the top all the way. It will be the hand of the railroads, the banks, the processors, canners, the utilities, the steamship companies. Here and there will be a farmer, but mostly it will be organized and hired vigilantism” (La Follette Hearing 1939).

58. Patrick Farrelly, Immigrant Inspector, memo to District Director of San Francisco, marked, “CONFIDENTIAL,” 4/15/1940.

59. Statement of Assistant Inspector Edmund Gies, 4/17/1940, 55854/100 B.

60. Osborne, 4/23/1940, File number 56034/663, RG 85, Washington, DC, NARA.

61. Statement of Chief Patrol Inspector Richard Wells, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B.

62. Mitchell (1996: 125–126). The use of vagrancy laws to control laborers has a long history. For the connections between slavery, post-Civil War forced labor, and today's prisons, see Childs (2009).

63. Osborne, 4/23/1940, 56034/663.

64. The literature on deportability is rich and crosses many disciplinary boundaries. Sociologist Monisha Das Gupta argues that “the state itself makes the deviant subjects it then punishes” (2006: 13). Legal scholar Daniel Kanstroom characterizes deportation “as a system of social control largely deployed against people of color” (2007: 72).

65. Historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez makes a similar point in relation to how the racial category “Mexican” became linked to illegality through Border Patrol surveillance procedures. In tracing the institutional development of the Border Patrol, she demonstrates how officers learned to police “brownness”—brown skin, dark hair—rather than crime (Lytle Hernandez 2010).

66. Both Shah (2001) and Briggs (2002) beautifully demonstrate how syphilis is marked as a foreign disease.

67. See Wilson (2003). Stern demonstrates that eugenicists were not fringe elements; the movement successfully influenced legislation (2005).

68. The idea that Mexicans were likely to spread disease continued to shape immigration policies after 1940. In 1942, for instance, the United States and Mexico collaborated in creating the Bracero Program, a guest worker program, which lasted until 1964. The Bracero Program brought 4 million Mexican male farm laborers to the United States to fill labor shortages caused by the United States's entry into World War II. Mexicans seeking to participate in the program were required to pass a physical examination by both United States and Mexican public health doctors. The exam included serological tests to check for venereal disease, chest x-rays to check for tuberculosis, psychological profiling, and a chemical bath (see Driscoll 1999 and Cohen 2001).

69. Twenty-three of the patients had lived in the United States for more than twenty years; five for more than thirty years; and one for fifty-three years (statement of Dr. Paul V. Yingling, 4/23/1940, 55854/100 B).

70. Letter to Frances Perkins from Executive Secretary of the Hollywood League, Regina Raglin, 55854/100 B.

71. See Katz (1989) and Skocpol (1992).

72. Report to the INS from District Director William Carmichael, 5/1/1940, 55854/100 B.

73. See Sánchez (1993).

74. The country reported that it would close schools and museums, affecting millions, after as many as sixty-one people had died from the flu and hundreds of others were suspected of being infected by it (Lacey and McNeill 2009).

75. Lacey and Jacobs 2009.

76. In the same broadcast, Savage also blamed the Centers for Disease Control for not handling the outbreak better. He already mistrusted the CDC for hiding the “the truth” about other epidemics, including supporting the “gay agenda” by not talking about AIDS (“Savage Nation,” 24 April 2009). Through his statements, Savage established both gays and Mexicans as scapegoats and groups to be viewed with suspicion. His broadcasts show how racism and homophobia can intersect and reinforce one another.