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'Operation Wetback' deported 1 million illegals with only 750 agents
American Thinker ^ | 9/18/15 | E Straker

Posted on 09/18/2015 5:16:10 AM PDT by bestintxas

Jeb Bush says it will cost "hundreds of billions of dollars" to deport illegal aliens. President Eisenhower, however, deported a million alone in the space of a year, and with only 750 deportation agents, in an operation with a name we would never use today: Operation Wetback.

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... Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country. 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 US. 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; wetback
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To: scooby321
He quickly deported illegal aliens - showed it can be done.

Other countries have also deported categories of people. Poland evicted some 16 million Germans without much trouble.

41 posted on 09/18/2015 9:39:01 AM PDT by Dante3
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To: bestintxas

Most illegals went back to Mexico voluntarily when Ike asked them to leave.

Under Bush and Obama we REWARD illegals for coming here - then we BLAME them for being here. It’s sick.

Tell illegals to go home and STOP REWARDING them for breaking the law.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE


42 posted on 09/18/2015 9:49:24 AM PDT by GOPJ (Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE)
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To: Pride in the USA

Remember back in the early 1970s at La Costa? ICE would sweep the place every few months and ask to see green cards of the large staff of service workers. Of course, almost none of the Mexican workers had a green card. ICE would put them all on buses and give them free transportation home. They’d visit their families for a few days before returning to their same jobs at La Costa. It was a running joke between the employer and the workers. This has been going on for such a long time with such disasterous results.


43 posted on 09/18/2015 10:59:59 AM PDT by lonevoice (Life is short. Make fun of it.)
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To: GOPJ

We need to stop rewarding individuals just because they break our laws. We should also deport illegals, build a fence and in every way discourage invasion of our country.


44 posted on 09/18/2015 11:37:47 AM PDT by Dante3
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To: Dante3

strict enforcement and no freebies will make it impossible for them to stay here. They will self deport in droves.


45 posted on 09/18/2015 11:43:00 AM PDT by bigtoona (Lose on amnesty, socialism cemented in place forever. Trump is the only hope.)
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To: Dante3

I totally agree with you... Check out my link in the last reply - - you’ll see bringing in these immigrants to the US won’t make a difference to the third world - but could destroy us.

If you have the chance give it 4 minutes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE


46 posted on 09/18/2015 11:45:56 AM PDT by GOPJ (Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE)
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To: bestintxas

Alll the GOPe candidats know it won’t cost that much they just don’t want to do it because they are all bought and paid for by the Cheap Labor Express.


47 posted on 09/18/2015 11:47:55 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: BinaryBoy

“Impossible! The left has assured me that the only way to deport is one at a time, tracked down individually and at great expense.”

And Hillary says they will be put in boxcars to go the distance.


48 posted on 09/18/2015 12:02:52 PM PDT by bestintxas (every time a RINO loses, a founding father gets his wings.)
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To: Mr. K

your conjecture is simply that.

we have laws here, unlike Mexico.

who cares if do not belong in Mexico? They entered that way and Mexico needs to address.

Libs always are the bleeding hearts worried about doing the right thing.

And it IS the right thing.

America cannot support the world.

If we wanted cheap labor, then cutoff the welfare benefits and pay people more to take those jobs ‘that Americans won’t do’ GW Bush.

Let those US citizens who choose not to then work starve.

Yep, starve. That is what a lazy bum deserves.


49 posted on 09/18/2015 12:13:50 PM PDT by bestintxas (every time a RINO loses, a founding father gets his wings.)
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To: GOPJ

Thanks.


50 posted on 09/18/2015 12:25:53 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: bestintxas

If we put just 750 agents to work today with orders to apprehend a thousand illegals a day, that would solve the problem. It would take years to make even a dent in the numbers, except that, if we also banned illegals from all paths to legal reentry or citizenship, the rest would flee just like they did under Ike.


51 posted on 09/18/2015 12:42:28 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: umgud
Cut off freebies. No public benefits paid to illegal parents of anchor babies. Stop birthright citizenship. Deport on contact.

Fine companies that hire illegals, stop all welfare benefits, offer free tickets 'home'....

52 posted on 09/18/2015 3:33:57 PM PDT by GOPJ (Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

And no babysitting and feeding .... I mean, public education for their children.


53 posted on 09/18/2015 3:37:14 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

That’s fair enough, but I think the announcement of something like that just to itself would serve as a deterrent to some degree.


54 posted on 09/19/2015 9:09:54 AM PDT by ksm1
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To: ksm1

Couldn’t hurt, anyway.


55 posted on 09/19/2015 9:25:17 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: bestintxas
One has to put “Operation Wetback” in the proper prospective and in its historical context.

First of all it “Operation Wetback” was accomplished at the time with the cooperation with the Mexican government and was in great part the result of pressure from the Mexican government to stop the illegal entry of and the abuses of Mexican farm laborers, legal and illegal in the United States-based largely on the Bracero Program. Mexico, unlike today, at the time very much wanted the United States to strengthen the border and stem and discourage the illegal immigration of workers and the sometimes abuses of the same under some unscrupulous agricultural land owners and return these much needed workers to build and support the Mexican economy and farming industry.

Migration and labor demands before World War II

Mexico began discouraging emigration to the U.S. in early 1900s, beginning with President Porfirio Díaz. Diaz, like many others within the Mexican government, realized the laborers leaving for the United States would be needed to industrialize Mexico and expand the economy. While Mexico did not have extensive capital, its biggest asset was abundant, cheap labor, the primary source needed to modernize the country and utilize industrialized agribusiness. The large and continuously growing agricultural industry in the United States created a demand for Mexican labor. From the 1920s onward, with the exception of the depression era, Mexicans served as the primary labor source for much of the agricultural industry in the United States, especially in the Southwest. 62,000 workers entered the United States legally, while over 100,000 entered illegally per year during the 1920s. Pressure from Mexican agribusiness owners to return laborers from the United States to Mexico prompted increased action by the Mexican government. The labor problems grew so bad that crops would rot in Mexican fields because so many laborers had crossed the border into the U.S. Meanwhile, American farms were also transitioning to large scale farms and agribusinesses and continued to recruit illegal Mexican laborers to fulfill the increasing labor demands.

The Bracero Program (1942–1964)

The Bracero Program was a wartime agreement between Mexican and American governments that allowed Mexican laborers to work in the United States under short term contracts in exchange for stricter border security and the return of illegal Mexican immigrants to Mexico. Mexico would provide laborers to the U.S. instead of providing allied military support with the understanding that border security and illegal labor restrictions would be tightened by the United States. The U.S. agreed based upon a strong need for cheap labor to support its agricultural businesses, while Mexico hoped to utilize the laborers returned from the United States to boost its efforts to industrialize and grow the economy and eliminate labor shortages. The program began on September 27, 1942 when the first braceros were admitted into the United States under its labor agreement with Mexico. As part of the program, braceros were supposed to be guaranteed wages, housing, food, and exemption from military service, however these terms were often disregarded by American farm owners. After this agreement was reached, the Mexican government continued to pressure the U.S. to strengthen its border security or face the suspension of the legal stream of Mexican laborers going into the U.S. Two million Mexican nationals legally participated in the program during its existence, yet the program and its ultimate ineffectiveness in limiting illegal immigration into the United States was one of the primary factors influencing the implementation of Operation Wetback.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback#Migration_and_labor_demands_before_World_War_II

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqo01

56 posted on 09/19/2015 10:04:14 AM PDT by MD Expat in PA
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To: Mr. K

That’s their problem.


57 posted on 09/19/2015 1:03:30 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Bush [the 90s rock band] for POTUS 2016!!!)
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To: Mr. K
Don’t give me the knee-jerk “that’s their problem” - it could quickly become our problem under a number of scenarios.

How so? War to reclaim their old territory from the 19th Century? I can't imagine that working out too well for them, do you?

58 posted on 09/19/2015 1:05:18 PM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: Future Snake Eater

Seriously people...

Can I get some thoughtful replies here?

What is Mexico going to do if 19 million people with no jobs are sent home?

I don’t care is not an answer, even if that’s how you feel.

What possible scenarios do you see playing out in Mexico?

Overthrow their government? Riots? Arming them, and sending them all back across the border to take territory?


59 posted on 09/19/2015 2:08:13 PM PDT by Mr. K (If it is HilLIARy -vs- Jeb! then I am writing-in Palin/Cruz)
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To: Mr. K

What more do you want me & my family to do ? keep putting them on my back ? Take more of my tax money ? Leave them here to rape & kill more Americans ? The Americans in the 1950s ran their ass back to Mexico cause they still had enough self-respect & a survival instinct....these days we are lacking both.


60 posted on 09/19/2015 2:12:31 PM PDT by LongWayHome
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