Operation Wetback: The Roots of Immigrant Deportations Today

In May 1954, the U.S. Border Patrol enacted “Operation Wetback,” a campaign to deport Mexican workers who were in the country illegally. The program succeeded in rounding up over 1 million people, most of them men. Regardless of one’s views on the matter, we would be wise to recognize that the current crisis has its historical origins decades earlier.
Written by Delia Fernández. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at origins.osu.edu/milestones/ma.... Video production by Katherine Weiss, Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, and Laura Seeger.
This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

[@Bob-bm3pd]

Bring it back!

[@4NaturesStory]

Let bring this Operation back!! ❤🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@michaelc1063]

😂

[@daleferguson1233]

Bring it Back😮

[@borood1188]

It worked! Sadly presidents that followed Ike didn’t maintain it.

[@Eliminator5555]

Ike was a true patriot of the highest order. They don't make them like that any more.

[@eutimiochavez415]

U could not call it that now days 😂 ,but bring it back .

[@TheWarshire]

And thus we see just why the issue is so complex. These are hard workinf, humble people. Being given the worst jobs at the low wages. And yet what is their reward. To be rounded up and shipped out because, sorry. You are not a 'true' American While many of the golks screaming, bring it back, are also angry at high inflation and prices, yet ignore the easiest way to lowering said prices. Increase supply and the lrices go down. Maybe just overhaul the whole system. Helps keep bad people out and reward the hard workers with the security that they amer now americans. Both sides win, and so do the people. But too many are blinded by hatred to see the way foward

[@sierra5713]

The lack of a formal policy had not stopped many immigrants. Settlers simply circumvented or ignored the laws. A number of people had left the United States to settle in the Mexican northern provinces.The ban and other measures did not stop US citizens from migrating to Texas by the thousands, and by 1834, it was estimated that over 30,000 Anglos lived in Texas, compared to only 7,800 Mexican-born residents. Mexican authorities noted that slave reforms passed by the state were being ignored. By the end of 1835, almost 5,000 enslaved Africans and African Americans lived in Texas, making up 13 percent of the non-Indian population (The Mexican rules were widely disregarded and slavery remained in Texas until the end of the American Civil War).The attitudes of the immigrants prompted the Mexican-American War on February 2nd 1848, in which Mexico lost almost 55 percent of its territory to the United States drawing a bullshit line trough territory that used to be nothing but Mexico and some of these territories we know currently as Arizona,NewMexico,Texas,Nevada and of course California. All of those states used to be absolutely Mexico! so now you have people who are indigenous here who were made foreigners on there own land.

[@michaelc1063]

Your food prices would skyrocket overnight. You would be begin for Biden back 😂

[@brucemaccallan4721]

Idiot libs said the same thing back then, and nothing happened. Oh wait, American wages went up and blue collar workers gained more negotiating power. Cya illegals

[@rma6070]

There's too many of us Latinos now (about 70 million documented ones) and we procreate 1 1/2 times faster than you Gringos! So the census says that we will be the majority by 2050 with just us documented Latinos! Just relax, learn Spanish and order some tacos!🌮🤣🤣🤣🇺🇸🇲🇽😎👍

[@eutimiochavez415]

Not true

[@mariterebarranco7794]

Indeed; you can tell is starting now… and it will get worse for the crackheads!!! It will be called… Desperation Crackheads!!