Operation Wetback

Operation Wetback was a 1954 operation by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove illegal immigrants, mostly Mexican nationals from the southwestern United States.^[1]

History

Burgeoning numbers of Mexican migrants prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint General Joseph Swing as INS Commissioner. According to Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr., Eisenhower had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration upon taking office. In a letter to Senator J. William Fulbright, Eisenhower quoted a report in The New York Times 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."^[2]

Operation Wetback in action

The effort began in California and Arizona in 1954 and coordinated 1075 Border Patrol agents, along with state and local police agencies. Tactics employed included going house to house in Mexican-American neighborhoods and citizenship checks during standard traffic stops.

Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions per day. By the end of July, over 50,000 illegal aliens were caught in the two states. An estimated 488,000 illegal aliens are believed to have left voluntarily, for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimated that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas of their own accord. To discourage illicit re-entry, buses and trains took many deportees deep within Mexican territory before 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 to the south. Some were taken as far as 1000 miles. Deportation by sea was ended after seven deportees jumped overboard from the Mercurio and drowned, provoking a mutiny that led to a public outcry in Mexico.^[1]

Civil rights violations

There were widespread allegations of abuse against Mexicans and US citizens of Mexican descent, including harassment and beatings.^[3] Lawsuits were filed and settled in favor of victims.^[4]

See also

• Bracero Program
• Illegal immigration to the United States
• Immigration to the United States
• Operation Gatekeeper
• Repatriation Movement
• United States v. Brignoni-Ponce
• Wetback (slur)
• Mexican migration

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} OPERATION WETBACK | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)
2. ^ Dillin, John (July 6, 2006). "How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico". The Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0706/p09s01-coop.html. Retrieved June 26, 2011. 
3. ^ "Race, gender, and punishment: from colonialism to the war on terror", Mary Bosworth, Jeanne Flavin. Rutgers University Press, 2007. ISBN 0813539048, 9780813539041. p. 126
4. ^ "Encyclopedia of Latino popular culture", Cordelia Candelaria, Peter J. García, Arturo J. Aldama. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. ISBN 0313332118, 9780313332111. p. 603

References

• García, Juan Ramon, Operation Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1980), ISBN 0313213534
• Gutiérrez, David G. , Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), ISBN 0520202198
• Haney López, Ian F. , Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice (Belknap Press, 2004), ISBN 0674016297
• Hing, Bill Ong, Defining America Through Immigration Policy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004), ISBN 1592132324
• Operation Wetback, pbs.org.