Posted on 07/10/2006 7:34:25 AM PDT by SJackson
GEORGE W. BUSH isn't the first Republican president to face a full-blown immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected President Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas and points beyond.
Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents -- less than one-tenth of today's force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.
Years later, the late Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower's first attorney general, said in an interview with this writer that the president had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration when he took office.
America "was faced with a breakdown in law enforcement on a very large scale," Brownell said. "When I say large scale, I mean hundreds of thousands were coming in from Mexico [every year] without restraint."
Agricultural dependency
Although an on-and-off guest-worker program for Mexicans was operating at the time, farmers and ranchers in the Southwest had become dependent on an additional low-cost, docile, illegal labor force of up to 3 million, mostly Mexican, laborers.
According to the Handbook of Texas Online, published by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association, this illegal workforce had a severe impact on the wages of ordinary working Americans. The Handbook Online reports that a study by the President's Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas in 1950 found that cotton growers in the Rio Grande Valley, where most illegal aliens in Texas worked, paid wages that were "approximately half" the farm wages paid elsewhere in the state.
Profits from illegal labor led to the kind of corruption that apparently worried Eisenhower. Joseph White, a retired 21-year veteran of the Border Patrol, says that in the early 1950s, some senior U.S. officials overseeing immigration enforcement "had friends among the ranchers," and agents "did not dare" arrest their illegal workers.
Walt Edwards, who joined the Border Patrol in 1951, tells a similar story. He says: "When we caught illegal aliens on farms and ranches, the farmer or rancher would often call and complain [to officials in El Paso]. And depending on how politically connected they were, there would be political intervention. That is how we got into this mess we are in now."
Bill Chambers, who worked for a combined 33 years for the Border Patrol and the then-called U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, says politically powerful people are still fueling the flow of illegals.
During the 1950s, however, this "Good Old Boy" system changed under Eisenhower -- if only for about 10 years.
In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing, a former West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS commissioner.
Political resistance
Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, D-Texas, and Sen. Pat McCarran, D-Nev., favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But Swing's close connections to the president shielded him -- and the Border Patrol from meddling by powerful political and corporate interests.
One of Swing's first decisive acts was to transfer certain entrenched immigration officials out of the border area to other regions of the country where their political connections with people such as Johnson would have no effect.
Then on June 17, 1954, what was called "Operation Wetback" began. Because political resistance was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country.
By mid-July, the crackdown extended northward into Utah, Nevada, Idaho and eastward to Texas.
By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and an estimated 500,000 to 700,000 illegals had left the Lone Star State voluntarily.
Unlike today, Mexicans caught in the roundup were not simply released at the border, where they could easily reenter the United States. To discourage their return, Swing arranged for buses and trains to take many aliens deep within Mexico before being set free.
Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Vera Cruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles south.
The sea voyage was "a rough trip, and they did not like it," says Don Coppock, who worked his way up from Border Patrolman in 1941 to eventually head the Border Patrol from 1960 to 1973.
Pleasing neighbor
Coppock says he "cannot understand why [President] Bush let [today's] problem get away from him as it has. I guess it was his compassionate conservatism, and trying to please [Mexican President] Vincente Fox."
There are now said to be 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the United States. Of the Mexicans who live here, an estimated 85 percent are here illegally.
Swing's fast-moving campaign soon secured America's borders -- an accomplishment no other president has since equaled. Illegal migration had dropped 95 percent by the late 1950s.
Several retired Border Patrol agents who took part in the 1950s effort say much of what Swing did could be repeated today.
"Some say we cannot send 12 million illegals now in the United States back where they came from. Of course we can!" says Walt Edwards, a former border agent who took part in Swing's campaign.
Donald Coppock, who headed the patrol from 1960 to 1973, says that if Swing and Ike were still running immigration enforcement, "they'd be on top of this in a minute."
William Chambers, another '50s veteran, agrees. "They could do a pretty good job" sealing the border.
Edwards says: "When we start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce."
Operation Adios
That very fact is part of the problem.
"Operation Wetback"
Can't call it that today. PC police would be all over it.
Ike wasn't a weak kneed RINO. If Bush had the political will and the desire to enforce existing law, he could drastically reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into this country and kick out a lot of those already here. But he lacks that will. Heck if anything his stance and statements just encourage law breaking.
Precisely.
The term "wetback" is not racist but somehow many have become confused that it is.
The same political correctness that has convinced so many that the term is somehow "racially offensive" permeates our Federal Government, Law Enforcement Agencies, and even the Republican Party. We're so scared of offending anyone that we're allowing an outright invasion to destroy our country. "Wetbacks", that is people of any race or nationality, who have crossed the border illegally (the term originates from those who crossed the Rio Grande and were "wet" from that crossing), are responsible for the deaths of over 9,000 Americans per year and the sexual abuse of almost 3,000 American children. But our government is paralyzed with fear that it may be "insensitive" to someone or some group so much that they are not enforcing our laws, securing our borders, and protecting Americans from this invasion.
Eisenhower was right with "Operation Wetback". We need a President and a Congress willing to launch "Operation Wetback II" not the cowards that we have today who refuse to fulfill their Consitutional duty (see Article IV Section 4) are unwilling to repel this invasion.
[[Couldn't call it "Operation Wetback" today.]]
Yea the liberals would go nuts. But a few months ago, during the demonstrations "Nothing Gringo" was fine with the libs.
http://www.coloringthenews.com/
Whats the problem.... that someone might beat up on you for insulting 'em? Youre free to call anyone you like a wetback, so long a youre ready to take the heat, if any.
Yeah, it didnt start out as racist, but over time it became so.
Unfortunately, Edwards is still living in the 50's (a time, by the way, when I was growing up and in my teens) and there is ZERO % chance that this could be applied today.
After the first week of a "sweep" such as was done in the 50's, the ACLU, LaRaza or some other lib/dim person or organization would find some Fed Judge somewhere, who would issue an injunction "pronto," and that would effectively end that, permanently.
It would take years for a case like this to wind its way to the Supremes and by then, we would have an additional 5 - 10 million illegals.
Nope, the way to go about it is whenever an illegal is found, simply deport them, immediately. No iffs, ands or butts. No need for sweeps.
Secondly, aggressively target businesses who hire illegals and fine them heavily and if need be, have the CEO's doing a perp walk.
Next (and again we will NEVER see this) is to cut off benefits to illegals--all kinds, except emergency medical.
Last but not least (again no likely to be looked upon favorably by SCOTUS) is to repeal anchor baby laws.
"To discourage their return, Swing arranged for buses and trains to take many aliens deep within Mexico before being set free.;"
I don't think Mexico would allow this today. Seems likely to me that Mexico will one day refuse to allow the repatriation of it's citizens caught here. That's why we need a wall!
Essentially you're right, though I wouldn't mind a sweep or two at known employers of illegals. And the border does have to be tightened.
I think you're right.
I like IKE!
Not only we can; we must.
Twenty times as many citizens know this.
All we lack is leadership and the will.
Golly. I wonder which influential Texas politicians are fueling the flow of illegals these days?
The Cat is out of the Bag.
Not even Ike can put it back now.
All we lack is leadership and the will.
Correction: All we lack is leadership WITH the will.
Most Americans have the will, but not the means to see that this mess is cleaned up. That's why we elect leaders that have access to the means. All they lack is the will.
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