During the 1930s, the Great Depression ravaged America’s economy, particularly the rural parts of the United States. American immigration policy had been particularly lenient toward Mexican immigrants to appease the high demand of agricultural labor in the South, but following the collapse of the stock market and the advent of the Dust Bowl, many white Americans began heading into the southwest in the hopes of finding work, including working in the fields. As work became increasingly scarce, this created difficulties for Mexican migrant workers, many of whom had come to the United States during World War I and then remained. The lack of codified immigration law in the United States exacerbated issues as many local law enforcement agencies created arbitrary immigration laws and arrested and deported those who had come across at a time when there had been no policy regarding Mexican immigration. In many cases, this resulted in the separation of families or even the unlawful deportation of U.S. citizens solely because they lacked evidence that they had been born in the United States.