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Abstract
This dissertation reconsiders Mexico-United States immigration history between 1933 and 1941, a period dominated by repatriation of Mexican nationals and expatriation of Mexican Americans from the U.S. It focuses on the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez crossing point, with attention to the still desultory efforts of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and special emphasis on the operations of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC), particularly the preoccupations of its long-term, highly effective leader Cleofas Calleros. It reveals the major issues regarding migrants that emerged on the border itself and how the authorities addressed them. The study also considers how the bold initiatives of the Cárdenas government had at least a modest impact on some returning migrant families. A considerable section examines how the second Cristero Rebellion affected this frontier zone and the ways in which the INS and the NCWC, under intense lobbying from the U.S. Catholic Church, facilitated border crossings for religious opponents of the Mexican government. It highlights the activities of certain Mexican bishops who continued to agitate from United States soil despite laws restricting such behavior.
The American Catholic Church responded very dynamically to the plight of the repatriados, though priests of Irish ancestry located primarily in the eastern sates dominated its hierarchy. It created new bodies to address their needs and to lobby with officials at the border to reverse pernicious policies. The personnel who staffed the El Paso branch of the NCWC were dedicated and experienced. In general, they worked with local MS agents to moderate their treatment of immigrants. They were even more active among the repatriados themselves, trying to insure that they understood and utilized appropriate laws, that families were kept together or recombined, and that the pressing needs of these largely impoverished people were tended to in a meaningful way. It is a complex story, but one that illuminates human motivations in spite of adversity and rejection.
