Brownsville Station: 1929 thru the 30's: The Great Depression & Illegal Immigrants

by Leo Rodriguez

Can you imagine the difficulty the early settlers in San Benito were facing close to the end of the 1920's? In 1929, the Great depression was just showing its big ugly head. Communities were hit hard, especially those that depended on heavy industry, construction came almost to a complete halt. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%, and of course San Benito was the primary hub for shipping of farmed goods.

Sam Robertson (San Benito Historical Society)

As if Col. Robertson didn't have enough headaches, in the Fall of 1929 official word was received that the U.S. Government was about to come in and deport all undocumented immigrants. The immigrants that were to be rounded up were offered special inducements in the form of cheap land and financial aid in Mexico. Additionally, their household and farming effects would be allowed to enter Mexico, duty free.

In 1929, the federal government required Mexicans to obtain visas in order to enter the United States.

But hold your horses. Col. Robertson and the leaders of our community and the RGV wanted no part of this. The farmers throughout the Valley were too dependent on the Mexican labor workers. An emergency meeting was held, and members of the American Legion, and community leaders, attended, the only item on the agenda was to formulate a plan to protect the Mexican citizens, and their deportation.

A committee was named and formed, and financing a central bureau was one of the items that was to be quickly implemented.

Major J.P. Galbraith & Col. Robertson made stirring addresses at the meeting, in which they predicted irreparable damage to the valley, unless the Mexicans were given protection.

Major Galbraith informed the attendees that that if deportation occurs, that the general population in the RGV would be decreased by 15 to 20%, and our section will be placed in a serious condition.

Col. Sam Robertson continued making the circuits, addressing various organizations to garner support of Mexican citizens being deported. In July of 1929, he addressed the San Benito Kiwanis club, his opening statement was "the territory we took from Mexico in 1847 by conquest should be exempted from provisions of the Box Immigration Bill". Col. Robertson suggested this as a compromise measure to prevent the Box Bill from having such a drastic affect on the border section. He went on to say "our people can not do the hard work which is necessary to be done, and the only people who can do it are the Mexicans". He went on to say that he had worked with the Mexican workers for over 25 years, and he had found them to be loyal, faithful, & extremely hard workers.

The Great Depression had now set in, the stock market and the U.S. economy crashed, and not a single region, or community was immune from the devastating effects. In the 1930's Americans were really hurting, one in four workers were unemployed and many families hungry. Many soon begin to accept the ideology that deporting illegal residents was not an outrageous idea, due to the severe shortages of jobs and food.

Robert Runyon postcard of San Benito c1916

In the early 1900s, Mexicans poured into San Benito and the Rio Grande Valley, welcomed by farm owners and the railroad, who needed their labor. Until entry rules tightened in 1924, they simply paid a nickel to cross the border and get visas for legal residency.

The majority were here legally, because it was so easy to enter legally, if that makes any sense. U.S. officials then tightened visa rules, reducing legal immigration from Mexico to a trickle. They also discussed what to do with those already in the U.S.

The Depression hit the Mexican immigrants just as hard. Along with the job crisis and food shortages that affected all U.S. workers, Mexicans and Mexican Americans had to face an additional threat: deportation. As unemployment swept the U.S., hostility to immigrant workers grew, and the government began a program of repatriating immigrants to Mexico. Immigrants were offered free train rides to Mexico, and some went voluntarily, but many were either tricked or coerced into repatriation, and some U.S. citizens were deported simply on suspicion of being Mexican. All in all, hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants, especially farmworkers, were sent out of the country during the 1930s--many of them the same workers who had been eagerly recruited a decade before.

As you are reading this, keep in mind that the U.S. Border Patrol was not formed until 1924 (I always thought it had been created way earlier).

The creation of the Border Patrol was an event which would have a significant impact on the lives of Mexican workers. Though the public did not immediately view Mexicans as "illegal aliens," the law now stated that undocumented workers were fugitives. With the advent of the Border Patrol, the definition "illegal alien" is born, and many Mexican citizens north of the border are subject to much suspicion.

In San Benito, the city was facing various issues of disarray. In May, 1929, the city terminated the Police Chief and ALL Police officers. The Chief was accused of irregularities (later legally cleared), and our officials knew the issue of the unemployed and the economy had to be addressed. November of 1930, the SB City Commission met to discuss the issue of the unemployed, drifters, and panhandlers in the city. Work or jail was quite simply the sense of this meeting, if you wanted work, and were able, a program was outlined to assist. The commission agreed to provide city jobs for at least 25 men on a daily basis, cleaning up city streets, brush pickup, etc, for a rate of $1 a day. A communication was sent to housewives, instructing them to refuse handouts to those coming to their house to ask for them, but to direct them to the police station where they would be given an opportunity to go work, or be jailed as vagrants, and forced to leave town.

The deportation of Mexican laborers in San Benito, and the rest of the U.S., came to be known as The Repatriation. The Repatriation period is not widely discussed in American history textbooks, most American history textbooks do not mention the Repatriation, although it is reported that at least one devoted more than half a page to the topic.

The life of an immigrant worker migrating to the Valley, and to the rest of the U.S, to better their lives, seemed dismal during this time period. Fortunately, the situation for them would improve between the period of 1942 and 1964, millions of Mexicans would again be called upon by U.S., as "braceros" under the Bracero Program, to work temporarily on contract to United States growers and ranchers. We will cover this program in a later chapter.

Small farm owners and their Mexican laborers in San Benito struggled to survive in desperate conditions. Bank foreclosures drove small farmers from their land, and large landholders cut back on their permanent workforce.

Immediately after Christmas, in 1932, SB Mayor E.L. Barmore, whom had been elected just months before, rolled out an extensive program to assist the unemployed in San Benito. This program, named the "Stagger Plan", employed up to 250 citizens, with strong efforts and focus to first and foremost hire those with dependents. This group was rotated with another group, and so on and so on, thus the name "the stagger plan". A similar plan was launched by the local Red Cross sewing room, 33 women were employed, working 3 day shifts, also rotated. This program was funded by the state Reconstruction Finance Corporation, as a means to assist the local communities during the depression.

In the depression era, as expected, our citizens and community leaders in San Benito rose to the task, local farmers donated tons of vegetables to be shipped to drought stricken and deprived areas. The Red Cross agency and our Chamber of Commerce coordinated numerous rail car shipments of goods to our northern friends. Additionally, in March of 1931, 2 five tons trucks left SB, loaded to capacity with carrots, beets, cabbage and citrus, destination Orange, Texas, in response to an appeal by the chamber there. How can one not be proud of our forefather's efforts and kindness, amazing. I am sure the Lord smiled down on our farmers, during this time period the cities of San Benito and Weslaco led all valley cities in the number of vegetables and fruit shipped out of the RGV.

Young Mexican-American women as farmhands in Texas

A difficult as times were, our city leaders tried in vain to keep the morale of the citizens high. On September, 1931, hundreds attended the inauguration of our brand new San Benito High School. The principal addresses were made that day by Mr. James C. Bowie, and by Mayor C.M. Cash. The library and the gymnasium at the new high school were considered to be the best of the best during this time period. The Rivoli was full to capacity in the weekends, and the San Benito Saints were looming as a powerful baseball club in the league. Some old established businesses were closing their doors during this decade, but many more were opening up.