For several hundred thousand Mexicans and Mexican Americans, their lives in the United States during the Great Depression were unbearable - they lost their jobs, were largely denied federal or local relief because of their ethnicity, and faced vilification in politics and in the media as "stealing jobs from real Americans." In addition to these factors, state and county officials across the U.S. began to threaten Mexican and Mexican American families who were seeking government aid with deportation. At the same time, the Mexican government introduced a program to entice ethnic Mexicans back to the country with the promise of free land if they returned. All of these factors - overwhelming poverty, the fear of threats from U.S. government officials, and the promises of the Mexican government - led many to leave the U.S. in a period known as the Mexican Repatriation.