Ike's "Operation Wetback" (yes, really) & Echoes in Trump's Mass Deportation Plan Today

[nycfan]

Free Link: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/trump-e...a?st=NbX5ek&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

"...In the months before Ochoa’s family was deported, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, as well as U.S. citizens of Mexican descent, many of them children like Ochoa, were swept up in Operation Wetback, one of the largest mass deportations in American history. It was named after an ethnic slur common at the time and was overseen by then-President Dwight Eisenhower.

Former President Donald Trump has cited the monthslong operation as a model for a more sweeping deportation campaign that he said he would conduct if he wins in November. He has praised Eisenhower’s proficiency in removing migrants and ferrying them deep into Mexico, far from the U.S. border.

Trump defended his plan in the debate Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris, saying an alleged influx of criminals from abroad has “destroyed the fabric of our country.” At a rally in Wisconsin last week, he warned that the operation might lead to violent clashes with armed migrant gangs. “Getting them out will be a bloody story,” he said. ..."

 

[nycfan]

"... In the early 1940s, millions of Mexicans came to the U.S. to work on farms and railroads in a government program to fill jobs during World War II. Many of the workers stayed after the war. When American troops returned home, public sentiment turned against the migrants.

In 1951, before the launch of Eisenhower’s deportation operation, the U.S. government issued a report blaming immigrants in the country illegally for many of the nation’s economic woes.

Citing little evidence, the report accused Mexican laborers of stealing jobs from Americans and bringing death and disease. It described illegal immigration as “an invasion,” a description used in recent years by conservative media outlets and right-leaning politicians.

“The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country,” Trump said during his July speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.

... Politicians and newspapers during the Eisenhower era warned of communist subversives slipping across the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has alleged without evidence that droves of prisoners, terrorists and mental patients have been crossing the border, claims repeated by right-leaning media outlets.

Today, most Americans view illegal immigration as one of the nation’s biggest problems, polls show.

At the core of Eisenhower’s effort was a public campaign to widely trumpet the government’s plan. The goal, according to historians, was a public-relations blitz to pressure immigrants in the country illegally to flee rather than risk their families being captured in surprise raids. Twice as many immigrants might have voluntarily left the U.S. than were deported, some historians said. ..."

 

[StrangePackage]

defended his plan in the debate Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris, saying an alleged influx of criminals from abroad has “destroyed the fabric of our country.” At a rally in Wisconsin last week, he warned that the operation might lead to violent clashes with armed migrant gangs. “Getting them out will be a bloody story,” he said. ..."

Since there aren't armed migrant gangs, what he's really saying is that he is fine with and will in fact encourage excessive violence from the government against undocumented immigrants and their families.

 

[finesse]

Since there aren't armed migrant gangs, what he's really saying is that he is fine with and will in fact encourage excessive violence from the government against undocumented immigrants and their families.

He's desperate to conflate drug gangs and drug trafficking to immigration to avoid any debate on immigration. He wants people too scared to actually think. How we handle immigration is a hell of lot more of a problem than immigration.

 

[PTOHeel]

I have friends who have immigrated from Mexico. One of them recently got her citizenship after decades and tens of thousands of dollars spent on the process. I really do worry about them under another Trump administration.

 

[mpaer]

"... In the early 1940s, millions of Mexicans came to the U.S. to work on farms and railroads in a government program to fill jobs during World War II. Many of the workers stayed after the war. When American troops returned home, public sentiment turned against the migrants.

In 1951, before the launch of Eisenhower’s deportation operation, the U.S. government issued a report blaming immigrants in the country illegally for many of the nation’s economic woes.

Citing little evidence, the report accused Mexican laborers of stealing jobs from Americans and bringing death and disease. It described illegal immigration as “an invasion,” a description used in recent years by conservative media outlets and right-leaning politicians.

“The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country,” Trump said during his July speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.

... Politicians and newspapers during the Eisenhower era warned of communist subversives slipping across the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has alleged without evidence that droves of prisoners, terrorists and mental patients have been crossing the border, claims repeated by right-leaning media outlets.

Today, most Americans view illegal immigration as one of the nation’s biggest problems, polls show.

At the core of Eisenhower’s effort was a public campaign to widely trumpet the government’s plan. The goal, according to historians, was a public-relations blitz to pressure immigrants in the country illegally to flee rather than risk their families being captured in surprise raids. Twice as many immigrants might have voluntarily left the U.S. than were deported, some historians said. ..."

Murica

 

[TarSpiel]

He's desperate to conflate drug gangs and drug trafficking to immigration to avoid any debate on immigration.

Those things are probably just not even separated in his own dimly lit mind.

 

[duluoz]

"... In the early 1940s, millions of Mexicans came to the U.S. to work on farms and railroads in a government program to fill jobs during World War II. Many of the workers stayed after the war. When American troops returned home, public sentiment turned against the migrants.

In 1951, before the launch of Eisenhower’s deportation operation, the U.S. government issued a report blaming immigrants in the country illegally for many of the nation’s economic woes.

Citing little evidence, the report accused Mexican laborers of stealing jobs from Americans and bringing death and disease. It described illegal immigration as “an invasion,” a description used in recent years by conservative media outlets and right-leaning politicians.

“The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country,” Trump said during his July speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.

... Politicians and newspapers during the Eisenhower era warned of communist subversives slipping across the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has alleged without evidence that droves of prisoners, terrorists and mental patients have been crossing the border, claims repeated by right-leaning media outlets.

Today, most Americans view illegal immigration as one of the nation’s biggest problems, polls show.

At the core of Eisenhower’s effort was a public campaign to widely trumpet the government’s plan. The goal, according to historians, was a public-relations blitz to pressure immigrants in the country illegally to flee rather than risk their families being captured in surprise raids. Twice as many immigrants might have voluntarily left the U.S. than were deported, some historians said. ..."

Most people don’t know that there was this active and vigorous Bracero campaign to recruit farm and railroad workers in the ‘40s-‘50s (initiated due to a WWII labor shortage) where the government would literally go into Mexican villages to tout the benefits of coming here to work.

This Eisenhower move was based on little evidence. It’s an early example of American xenophobia. When the Bracero program ended, the Americans who had been clamoring to “take these jobs back” quickly quit after getting a taste of the conditions and wages. Farmers suffered as a result, and it introduced more mechanization and of course a rise in what would come to be illegal immigration. Though it didn’t start out as illegal. It started with the US essentially duping millions of Mexican laborers into shitty working conditions.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]