Posted on 11/27/2011 4:46:13 AM PST by BarnacleCenturion
Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected 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.
President 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.
Although there is little to no record of this operation in Ike's official papers, one piece of historic evidence indicates how he felt. In 1951, Ike wrote a letter to Sen. William Fulbright (D) of Arkansas. The senator had just proposed that a special commission be created by Congress to examine unethical conduct by government officials who accepted gifts and favors in exchange for special treatment of private individuals.
General Eisenhower, who was gearing up for his run for the presidency, said "Amen" to Senator Fulbright's proposal. He then quoted a report in The New York Times, highlighting one paragraph that said: "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican 'wetbacks' to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government."
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
“This sort of thing cannot be done today because there is NO politician of either party who..”
Ike was no politician.
Politicians are the problem, not the solution.
Newt believes America must be a nation of laws. The first duty of the federal government is national defense, and it is inexcusable that we haven’t secured the border. In his 21st Century Contract with America, Newt pledges to control the southern border by January 1, 2014, waiving any regulations and pushing aside any bureaucracies that get in the way.
As we secure the border, we must make an aggressive and serious effort to deport all criminals, gang members, and any other threats to our society as quickly as possible. We must also tap into the ingenuity of the private sector to better validate who is in the United States legally.
Newt opposed the DREAM Act. However, he did agree with part of the legislation which allowed those who came to the United States illegally as children to serve in the U.S. Military to earn their citizenship, just as foreign nationals are today allowed to do the same.
Furthermore, Newt has proposed giving local communities the authority to allow those with long established roots in the neighborhood a legal residency status, but not citizenship. Newt believes local communities are at a better vantage point to determine if those there illegally should stay or go. Under this system, we will send home those with no family or community ties and quickly deport those who have committed criminal and other destructive acts, while providing minimal disruption to families and communities.
Read Newt’s 10 step immigration plan here.
And now that same kind of corruption is used to pump money into DC to perpetuate itself. Thanks, Newt. Thanks, Bush 43. Thanks, McCain.
I was thinking of installing some proximity screachers, those high intensity sound devices that will drop you to your knees couple with the heat projectors, and have those heavily armored. Space them far enough to have some overlap.
But boots on the ground of course is the solution.
Oh, it's more basal than that, IMO. Both parties use it to drive fundraising and legal graft. The Dems get the support from La Raza-type organizations and union heads who see future union members, and the RINOs get the support from the business interests that profit from illegals. And true to form, for a few million in such legal graft, the taxpayers are on the hook for billions in lower wages and taxpayer-paid bennies to illegals.
In “Operation Wetback” Eisenhower defied Republican interests. Agricultural interests that liked having illegal alien Mexicans. None the less, Eisenhower drove them out of town and back over the Mexico border with a minimum of law enforcement personnel
Back then the Mexicans feared “the Anglo” as we were called. When they were told to scoot they complied
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.
Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas and Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada, favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But General Swing's close connections to the president shielded him – and the Border Patrol – from meddling by powerful political and corporate interests.
Compare that to Newt who already is promoting those powerful political and corporate interests.
He's co-opted before one primary vote is cast.
Eisenhower showed that problems can be solved at the federal level if you enforce existing laws and refuse to be corrupted by special interests who want the laws subverted.
This is more widespread than just RINO's I would say there are precious few who do not play for pay.
Oh...... Plus Herbert Hoover and Franklin D Roosevelt also drove out the Mexicans in the early 1930 during the Great Depression. With the Mexicans gone there were more agricultural jobs for Okies streaming into California (Grapes of Wrath) and other Americans too.
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WIKIPEDIA:
The Mexican Repatriation refers to a mass migration that took place between 1929 and 1939, when as many as 500,000 people of Mexican descent were forced or pressured to leave the US.[1] The event, carried out by American authorities, took place without due process.[2] Some 35,000 were deported, amongst many hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who were deported during this period. The Immigration and Naturalization Service targeted Mexicans because of “the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios.” [3]
The Repatriation is not widely discussed in American history textbooks;[4] in a 2006 survey of the nine most commonly used American history textbooks in the United States, four did not mention the Repatriation, and only one devoted more than half a page to the topic.[4] Nevertheless, many mainstream textbooks now carry this topic, while subsequently ignoring other mass deportations and repatriations of European immigrants. In total,they devoted four pages to the Repatriation, compared with eighteen pages for the Japanese American internment[4] which affected only one-tenth as many people.[1]
These actions were authorized by President Herbert Hoover and targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois and Michigan.
All you need is the political will to do it.
Ahhh, there's the rub. There is no political will because the drug cartels are funding the retirement accounts of those who decide the degree of enforcement.
Corruption reigns in Washington!!!
Oh, and Eisenhower was a Beltway outsider. He was an accomplished politician - you don't get to be a five-star without those skills - but he learned his politics in the arena of wartime military, where you have to get things done and not just play word games and punt the problem to the next guy.
There are lots of lessons in this article for those who choose to learn them.
Newt’s plan is worthless because he doesn’t mean a word of it.
I reemember Operation Wetback - how terribly politically incorrect - from the halcyon rural community of my youth. There was a national awareness that citizenship preempted the invading hordes. If you were first generation immigrant and could not prove legal residence you did not work and likely would be reported to INS.
Though it can be done, in today`s politically correct, afraid-of-its-own-tail New America, the likelihood is practically nil. But we`ll talk about it a lot.
“there may be a significant number of American businessmen who welcome the cheap labor”
People keep forgetting that it’s illegal to pay workers what some jobs are worth.
I see a huge difference between Bracero and the Red-Card program.
Namely, Bracero sought to fill bona fide short-term labor shortages.
The Red Card types are the same folks who push abuse of legal visas to push down American wages. H1-B became a complete fraud in the 2002 IT slump when a half-million H1-B visa holders were brought in when hundreds of thousands of IT workers were out of work.
So in the end, it all comes down to intent. And sorry, I don't see Newt's intentions as good. His solution to failure to enforce the law is to change the law. Eisenhower showed what can happen when the law is enforced with integrity. A few states have shown what even a threat of enforcement can accomplish. It all boils down to being serious about actually solving the problem instead of profiting from it being perpetuated.
From the article, there were roughly ten self-deportations for every actual deportation. A ratio to contemplate the next time someone demands you to show how 12 million illegals can be forcibly deported.
Even so, unemployment was 5.5-6% in 1954.
Thanks for posting
I'm actually quite certain he means every word of it, just like Zero meant he would close Guantanamo, and Bush I meant he would not raise taxes, and clinton meant he would not tax the middle class, but in the real world, what you say you want to do, and what you actually get through Congress are two different things. We all know that. That's why we are only talking about "principles" and "ideas" that would guide someone's decision-making. Here's what he says he believes.
Newt believes America must be a nation of laws. The first duty of the federal government is national defense, and it is inexcusable that we haven’t secured the border. In his 21st Century Contract with America, Newt pledges to control the southern border by January 1, 2014, waiving any regulations and pushing aside any bureaucracies that get in the way.
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