These repatriations, though often initiated under threats of deportation, were considered "voluntary," and thus few federal records exist to provide numbers of how many Mexicans left the country during the Depression. Nevertheless, INS reported in 1931 that "large proportions" of the nation's Mexican population were leaving the country, and some estimates have concluded that between just November 1929 and December 1931, about 200,000 Mexicans left the United States. While a large number willingly departed to Mexico, a significant number were explicitly pressured to leave through state and local repatriation programs. These programs responded to the Depression's severe effects in Mexican and Mexican American communities by promoting deportation.