Undocumented Immigration, Changes in the Stance of Mexican American Organizations, and a Historical Turnover

This study is to explore the background, process, and meaning of the changes in the stance of Mexican American mainstream organizations such as LULAC regarding undocumented immigration in the 1970s. Traditionally such organizations supported the governmental policy for immigration restriction and control and maintained a clear demarcation between Mexican Americans and immigrants, or citizens and non-citizens. But the rise and radicalization of the Chicano movement with its emphasis on Chicano ethnic identity and solidarity affected Mexican American mainstream organizations to change their traditional stance for rigid immigration control. Besides, in struggling for civil rights, Mexican Americans were awakened to the fact that regardless of being citizens and non-citizens or legal and illegal/undocumented, their interests could not be divided. And they began to criticize the governmental reform plan for undocumented immigration and to tear down the barrier between ‘us’ and ‘them’. This signalled the historical changes of the Mexican American community which has long been divided upon the issues of Mexican immigration.