“Operation Wetback” was a program instituted by the Eisenhower Administration in 1954 to send illegal Mexicans back to Mexico. It is now the model being cited by Donald Trump for his “deportation force” to rid America of the 11 million or so illegal immigrants, most of whom Trump assumes, are Mexicans.
Like everything else, Operation Wetback had a history. In 1942 the United States began importing Mexican workers to replace Americans off at war. This was the Bracero Program, that existed until 1964. It was a popular program in California because it supplied huge numbers of farm workers.
But there were abuses, Braceros complained they were under paid and many went to work outside the program. It also attracted illegal Mexican migrants into the Southwest, known pejoratively as “wetbacks” since to get there many had to cross the Rio Grande River. By 1954, there were several million illegals mostly in California and Texas, and both the Eisenhower Administration and the Mexican government wanted them returned.
On May 17, 1954, command teams of border control agents began the “deportation force” utilizing 300 jeeps, cars and buses, and seven airplanes. The airplanes coordinated the capture of the Mexicans, many of when were then loaded onto cargo ships that deposited them at Mexican ports including Veracruz which took in 250,000. No effort was made to return the Mexicans to their native villages, American citizens were included in the round up, and families were split up. However, the program was judged a success as 1,078,168 apprehensions were made in the first year alone.
Because the “wetbacks” were simply dumped in Mexico, many died from starvation and heat exhaustion. As an example, on a single day in July 1954, 88 Mexicans died in 112 degree heat as they were being rounded up. When Mexicans objected to deportation or tried to sneak back into the United States, the government had to take action. Eisenhower’s Attorney General Herbert Brownell was quoted by the Washington Post as saying about the border guards, “Just give them some live ammo; let them shoot a few people. Then everyone will be scared and they won’t come across the border.”
Since Mr. Trump’s “deportation force” will involve 11 million people, or ten times the number in Operation Wetback, the 1954 round up really is not that relevant. As an example, there will be a serious problem of what to do with the Mexicans who will die en route, especially if Mr. Trump’s Attorney General like Eisenhower’s orders them shot.
Mr. Trump is simply not telling the truth in comparing his deportations with the rather modest Operation Wetback. A much better comparison is Josef Stalin’s ethnic cleansing of Germans from eastern and central Europe after World War II. The number deported to the west is estimated at 12 to 14 million people, very comparable to the Trump deportations. The estimated death toll, according to the German Historical Museum, was around 600,000, mostly from starvation.
It is hard to believe the American people will put up with morgues being piled high with dead Mexicans. Mr. Trump simply has to explain how he will deal with these huge numbers.
Having to deal with the death of 600,000 Mexicans under the Trump deportations will have a huge impact on state and local government budgets, even if the Trump victims, being illegals, are buried in mass graves.
Mr. Trump, and like minded Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz, owe it to the American people, and especially Californians, to tell us just who is going to pay for all this. Obtaining the trucks, rail cars, boats and airplanes to deport 11 million people will be hugely expensive, and there is no way that we have enough cemetery space to bury 600,000 people.
This question must be asked at the next Republican debate and answers must be demanded.