History
immigration from Mexico to the United States 1900 to present
Immigration from Mexico to the United States defined U.S.-Mexican relations throughout the 20th century and has had an
enormous cultural and economic impact on both countries. The advent of a Mexican-American ethnicity in the United
States dates back to the end of the U.S.-Mexican War in 1848, when Mexico was forced to cede large expanses of territory
to its northern neighbor. The movement of people continued during the 20th and 21st centuries.
Immigration from Mexico to the United States can be divided into three main waves. The first coincided with the
outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. Large numbers of people migrated north to escape the violence that plagued Mexico
between 1910 and 1920. Mexican immigration continued in the 1920s as many people relocated temporarily, moving back
and forth across the border with relative ease. Many of those in this early wave were agrarian workers who found
temporary work in rural areas of the U.S. Southwest. Mexican immigration during the 1920s came to an abrupt end with
the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. In an effort to protect American workers, the U.S. government deported large
numbers of Mexican migrants. Those who remained in the United States often relocated to the cities in search of better
employment opportunities. By the end of the 1930s, many U.S. cities had become home to Mexican immigrant
communities.
A second wave of immigration was precipitated by labor shortages in the United States during World War II. In 1942, the
U.S. and Mexican governments entered into an agreement that allowed Mexican workers to seek temporary employment
in the United States as part of the Bracero Program. The guest worker program was enormously popular on both sides of
the border and continued after the war. Millions of braceros worked legally in the United States as part of the program,
while even more undocumented workers ventured across the border. Although most braceros worked as farmhands, some
were employed in urban industries. By 1964, concerns over the influx of undocumented workers and the exploitation of
braceros brought an end to the guest worker program. Faced with the prospect of reabsorbing millions of workers into its
labor sector, the Mexican government created the Border Industrialization Program, which allowed for the construction of
U.S.-owned maquiladoras in the border region. In 1965, U.S. president Lyndon Johnson signed immigration reform
legislation that made it easier for immigrants to sponsor family members to move to the United States and become U.S.
citizens.
A third wave of Mexican immigration began in the late decades of the 20th century and lasted until 2008. The decline of
the Mexican economy that began in the late 1970s compelled many displaced laborers to seek employment in the United
States in an effort to offset their financial problems. The numbers of undocumented Mexican immigrants grew
precipitously in the 1980s, and in 1986, U.S. president Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
The law granted amnesty to some illegal immigrants but also attempted to reinforce laws aimed at curbing illegal
immigration. Despite the 1986 legislation, documented and undocumented immigration from Mexico increased in the
1990s. After four decades of rapid growth, the size of the Mexican immigrant population in the United States has
remained stable in recent years. In 2014, about 11.7 million Mexican immigrants (i.e. individuals who had no U.S.
citizenship at birth) resided in the United States, about 5.6 million of them illegally, a decline of more than 1 million since
2007 when the unauthorized Mexican immigrant population was estimated at 6.9 million. Representing more than 26
percent of the foreign-born population, Mexican immigrants continue to be the largest immigrant group in the United
States. More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico than have migrated to the United States since the 2008
recession. The decline in Mexican inflows results from weakened job opportunities in the United States, tougher border
enforcement, the decline in Mexico's birth rates, and the improving Mexican economy.
Further Information
William Dudley. Illegal Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints (San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2002).
Rubén Martínez. The New Americans (New York: New Press, 2004).
George J. Sanchez. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
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