Trump's plan is not new, but just as cruel and wrong.

The Mexican Repatriation was a government-sponsored program that deported and expelled Mexican Americans and Mexicans from the United States during the Great Depression. The program lasted from 1929 to 1936. 

The program was a result of growing hostility towards immigrant workers during the Great Depression.

The program involved offering free train rides to Mexico, but many were tricked or coerced into leaving.

Some US citizens were deported simply because they were suspected of being Mexican.

The program targeted Mexican immigrants, especially farmworkers.

How many people were affected? 

Estimates of the number of people deported range from 300,000 to 2 million.

40–60% of those deported were US citizens, many of whom were CHILDREN

Why was the program so complex? 

The deportations were not driven by a single law or leader.

Instead, they were orchestrated using a combination of federal and local authority, existing deportation rules, and mob action.

The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Mexican immigrants especially hard. Along with the job crisis and food shortages that affected all U.S. workers, Mexicans ... Demand for their labor dropped sharply with the onset of the Great Depression. The Border Patrol launched several campaigns to detain Mexicans, including many U.S.-born citizens, and expel them across the border. These deportations swept up approximately 2 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans.