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 Editorials | Issues | April 2008 
Students Should Study Human Rights Violations of Mexican-Americans, US Lawmaker Says
 Susan Jones - CNSNews.com
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During the 1930s, the U.S. government "violated the human rights of many Americans of Mexican ancestry" by deporting an estimated 2 million of them to Mexico, a California lawmaker says.
State Sen. Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles Democrat, has introduced a bill (SB 1214) that would require the California Education Department to incorporate the "unconstitutional deportations" of the 1930s into the Social Studies curriculum for public school students in 7th through 12th grades. The deportations would be added to the list of human rights issues that students learn about.
"By incorporating this historical event in our history books and making curriculum accessible to educators we can begin educating our future generations in order to prevent future imminent violation of human rights," Cedillo says on his Web site.
Cedillo's bill is scheduled to be considered Monday by the California Senate Appropriations Committee.
Even if it advances, it would likely be vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, who opposes bills telling schools what to teach. ("I have consistently vetoed legislation that attempts to incorporate specific historical events or groups of people into social science instruction," Schwarzenegger said when he vetoed a similar bill two years ago.)
Cedillo noted that in 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill apologizing for the 1930s Mexican repatriation program (SB 675). That bill acknowledged the suffering that tens of thousands of Americans experienced when they were forced out of their homes.
"The apology is only the first step in acknowledging and trying to amend their traumatic experiences," Cedillo's Web site says.
Cedillo and other critics say up to 2 million Americans citizens and legal residents (400,000 in California, they say) were unconstitutionally deported to Mexico. But an in-depth examination by USA Today found that "tens of thousands" of people - "possibly more than 400,000 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans" - were pressured to leave the United States through federal raids and denial of jobs.
The push to remove illegal aliens came at a time when jobs were scarce in this country.
Most of the U.S. citizens deported to Mexico were children born in the U.S., the newspaper reported. |
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