Sacramento exhibit compares 1950s mass deportations with today’s immigration raids

PABLO ESPINOZA AND HIS OLDER SON were at the California Museum in downtown Sacramento checking out an exhibit on the World War II internment of Japanese Americans when he had an idea: He wanted to use the same space to tell a different story, one that would document America’s largest-ever deportation campaign.

By then he had dedicated his career as a journalist and then Capitol staffer to highlighting the experiences of Latinos in California. He believed he could have been a target during the 1954-55 mass deportation had he been in the state at the time.