Operation Wetback

Now here's something that's pretty darned interesting:

You folks know Snopes, right? It's one of the main "fact check" sites on the internet.

Whenever I receive some email that sounds too nutty to be true, I check it out using Snopes and/or FactCheck.

Anyway... I was just doing a bit of light research on Eisenhower's "Operation Wetback" and funny enough... Snopes - one of the initial "hits" that popped up - notes the follow on their "Operation Wetback" page:

Claim: "Operation Wetback" deported 13 million Mexican nationals from the U.S. during the 1950's.

Status: Undetermined/Research In Progress.

Interesting, huh...??? I mean... this isn't exactly a new topic... a new question. I learned about "Operation Wetback" decades ago, back during college.

Certainly the "immigration debate" has been going on hot and heavy for years now...

Why the lack of confirmation or denial from Snopes....?

Hmm... let's see what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

(Here we go!)

Operation Wetback was a 1954 operation by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about one million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States, focusing on Mexican nationals.

The operation was modeled after a program that came to be termed the Mexican Repatriation, which put pressure on citizens of Mexico to return home during the Great Depression, due to the economic crisis in the United States.

The effort began in California and Arizona, and coordinated 1075 Border Patrol agents, along with state and local police agencies, to mount an aggressive crackdown. ... By the end of July, over 50,000 immigrants were caught in the two states. An estimated 488,000 illegal immigrants are claimed to have left voluntarily, for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimates that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas of their accord.

To discourage illicit re-entry, buses and trains took many deportees deep within Mexican territory, prior to releasing them.

Tens of thousands more were deported by two chartered ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried them from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) to the south. Some were taken as far as 1,000 miles.

Now of course the Wikipedia article - and indeed most portrayals of Operation Wetback - note the "abuses" which took place during enforcement.

(I mean, think about it... other than FDR's internment of Japanese-Americans during WW-2 and pre-civil-war slavery or post-civil-war Jim Crow, what could possibly be more "politically incorrect" than Eisenhower's mass deportations...???)

Taking it as a given that any government program of this scope would give rise to mistakes and abuses, the question remains... was Operation Wetback effective...???

A few years back, July 6, 2006 to be exact, the Christian Science Monitor ran a story by John Dillin titled, "How Eisenhower Solved Illegal Border Crossings from Mexico."

(Quoting...)

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.

[T]he 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," Mr. Brownell said. "When I say large scale, I mean hundreds of thousands were coming in from Mexico every year without restraint."

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.

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."

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 US 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."

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.

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.

[O]n June 17, 1954, what was called "Operation Wetback" began. Because political resistance was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. ... By mid-July, the crackdown extended northward into Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, and eastward to Texas.

General Swing's fast-moving campaign soon secured America's borders - an accomplishment no other president has since equaled.

Illegal migration had dropped 95% by the late 1950s.

Several retired Border Patrol agents who took part in the 1950s effort, including Mr. Edwards, 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!" Edwards says.

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."

Well, folks... there ya go.

I agree with the officials Dillin interviewed back in 2006. Contrary to the naysayers, it seems clear to me that what was once accomplished successfully - with none of the technology we possess today, 56 years later - could be re-achieved today. (At the very least we'd be moving in the right direct... we'd be moving forwards, not backwards!)

It seems to me that if President Obama had an interest in enforcing the Rule of Law and protecting our borders, our territory, and our citizens... well... he could do so.

Folks... they're lying to you when they tell you we can't deport illegal aliens. We've done it in the past - we could do so now... if only we had the will!

Yes, we can debate whether we should control our border, whether we should deport illegals. I understand and acknowledge this.

But folks... what can't be seriously or sincerely debated is our capacity to do so should a future Congress and future President decide to reverse current policies which leave us vulnerable not just to terrorism and crime, but to the economic losses caused by downward pressure on native American wages - particularly the wages (not to mention the very job opportunities!) of our most vulnerable citizens attempting to secure their own share of the American Dream.