As the McCarthy Acts were in full effect, thousands of people got deported out of the country, each one more heartbreaking than the last. The two cases that stood out the most involved Elias V. Espinoza in 1951 and Bernardo Diaz in 1955. Espinoza had been a resident in America for 48 years and had eight children born in the states. It was due to working for the Workers Alliance, an organization that helped the unemployed by providing benefits and job opportunities, that resulted in his deportation. The Los Angeles Committee for Protection of the Foreign-Born (LACPFB) tried to save Espinoza from deportation by dispersing pamphlets portraying “Espinoza family as an all American family”. His 9 years old son even wrote and begged an Immigration …show more content…
Even though the “idea of the family stood as a bulwark against domestic communism”, an INS official insinuated that Mexican Americans are unintelligent and are too vulnerable toward communism. Without delay, Espinoza was forced to deport and left his wife and eight children to fend for themselves (Garcilazo 284-286). Another victim of the McCarran Act was Bernardo Díaz, a father to six children and a former soldier in the U.S. Army. He was sent to serve three years at Leavenworth for deserting the army before the end of World War 2. However due to the McCarran-Walter Act, the government took away his citizenship. His wife, Inez Díaz, dismissed applying for state aid since that would require her to declare Bernardo failed to care for his family, which might impede her husband’s case. Instead, she spent months picking strawberries for only 90 cents per hour to support her six children. With the collective help from the Los Angeles communities, the LACPFB, and La Alianza Hispano-Americana, Bernardo Díaz was allowed to return home. This case became very significant since it was the beginning of people’s collective effort to help the victims of immigration laws. The publicity from Díaz’s case also brought attention to the native-born children who were also deported along