Speech #740085559

None of these Mexicans could have been over 20 years of age. and 552.480 could not have been over 10 years of age. It is. therefore. evident that the majority of nativeborn Mexicans were the children of foreignborn Mexicans who came to the United States from 1900 to 1930. According to the Census Bureau there were 238.077 female Mexicans. including foreign born and native born who were married up to 1930. A much smaller number were married up to 1920 and a still smaller number were married up to 1910. From the above figures we may account for the 754.000 Mexicans born in the United States from 1900 to 1930 by assuming they were the children of Mexicans who entered the United States illegally or that the Mexican women are prolific to a remarkable extent. There would. of course. be no record of such illegal entrants. either in the Immigration Bureau or the Census Department. The Secretary of Labor. in 1929. said: We estimate that more than 1.000.000 Mexicans are illegally in this country. The Secretary was in a better position to estimate the number of Mexicans illegally in this country than anyone else. Roy L. Garis conducted studies in 1929 at the request of the Immigration Committee in reference to Mexican immigrants. He says.. among other things: How manyMeaning Mexicanshave waded the Rio Grande is a matter of conjecture. for many Mexicans prefer to enter without the formality of passing through the immigration offices for the simple reason that the head tax and other charges are high. to say nothing of their ability. or rather inability. to pass the literacy test. Many Mexicans who state to our immigration officials that they wish to cross the border merely to shop in American stores simply fail to return to Mexico. It seems to be thus that many of them enter this country illegally. In this connection it is interesting to note that. according to the Census Bureau. the total number of illiterate Mexicans in the Texas population 10 years old and over was 163.622. or 33.8 percent.