“Los Hijos Son La Riqueza Del Pobre:” Mexican Child Migration and the Making of Domestic (Im)migrant Exclusion, 1937–1960

Abstract

This article expands upon adult-centric migration histories by analyzing the international and domestic migration of Mexican youth to and within the United States, mainly in the post–World War II period. It uncovers an overlapping set of far-reaching legal regimes composed of federal child labor regulations, state residence requirements, compulsory school attendance and border enforcement policies that jeopardized the welfare of all border-crossing Mexican youth, making even US–born children of immigrants subject to a domestic form of migrant exclusion. Through an examination of geographically disparate and neglected archival records, this article makes the case that an expansive view of national (im)migrant exclusion can account for overlooked injuries to child welfare and unique mechanisms of expulsion. Beyond deportation, exclusion in mid-twentieth-century America relied upon domestic forms of removal to exclude citizen and non-citizen migrant youth from public schools and relegate them to isolated sites of agricultural labor exploitation and incarceration.