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Policies Affecting Mexican Americans
| 1845 to 1942 | ACCOMMODATION TO MINORITY STATUS |
| 1945 to 1965 | THE ORIGINS OF CHALLENGE |
| 1967 to 1990 | SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTION |
FIRST PHASE: ACCOMMODATION TO MINORITY STATUS
| 1845 | United States annexed Texas, which had declared itself independent of Mexico in 1836 |
| 1848 | Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |
| 1853 | Gadsden Purchase-additional land bought from Mexico |
| 1924 | U.S. Border patrol established |
| 1929-1935 | major effort at enforcement of 1924 restrictions, thousands of Mexican Americans and their families repatriated, most without court hearings |
| 1942 | Bracero program |
SECOND PHASE: THE ORIGINS OF CHALLENGE
| 1944 | War Labor Board ended discriminatory wage rates, siding with the labor union (CIO) |
| 1945 | Mendez et al. v. School District of Orange County et al. - federal court ruled segregation of Mexican Americans in public schools illegal |
| 1948 | Delgado v. The Bastrup Independent School District - federal court ruled segregation of Mexican Americans in public school illegal |
| l953 | Supreme Court ruled in Pete Hernandez case that the Fourteenth Amendment applied not just to African Americans but to Mexican Americans and others as well |
| 1954 | "Operation Wetback" - U.S. Immigration nd Naturalization Service launched massive program to deport illegal Mexican immigrants |
| 1964 | Bracero program expired by statute |
| 1965 | Immigration and Naturalization Act - first U.S. limitation on the annual number of Western Hemisphere immigrants |
THIRD PHASE: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTION
| 1967 | Bilingual Education Act |
| 1968 | Elementary and Secondary Education Act |
| 1970 | Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District - court ruled de jure segregation existed and dual school system had to be desegregated |
| 1974 | Ethnic Heritage Act
Supreme Court decision in Lau v. Nichols affirmed legal right to education for children with English language problems |
| 1975 | Amendment to Voting rights Act of 1965-protected "language groups" |
| 1982 | Supreme Court upheld lower court decision requiring Texas to institute bilingual education in case brought by Limited English Proficiency of Mexican-American Youth |
| 1986 | Immigration Reform and Control Act-amnesty program, employer sanctions, guest-worker program |
| 1990 |
Immigration Act-continued family reunification preference category [Back]
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