If you watched the last Republican debate, you know that is was more yelling and talking over each other, but did you catch Donald Trump’s reference to Operation Wetback? Well, it was there.
This was Donald Trump as he praised Operation Wetback, and yes, that is the real name.
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“Let me just tell you that Dwight Eisenhower […] moved a million and a half illegal immigrants out of this country,” Trump said during the debate. “Moved them just beyond the border; they came back. Moved them again beyond the border; they came back. Didn’t like it. Moved them way south; they never came back.”
So, what the hell was the GOP candidate talking about? “Operation Wetback” was implemented in the mid 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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In 1954, the U.S. government began the mass deportation of undocumented Mexican immigrants. They were rounded up by the thousands and sent across the border on trucks, trains, and boats.
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Operation Wetback was proven to be inhumane and deadly as many immigrants died during the deportations.
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People drowned after jumping from ships to avoid being sent back to Mexico. Others were sent to very remote areas with no food, water, or shelter and left to fend for themselves.
Are you serious, Trump?
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“The Eisenhower mass deportation policy was tragic,” Republican Alfonso Aguilar, the Director of American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership told NPR. “Human rights were violated, people were removed to remote locations without food and water, there were many deaths, sometimes U.S. citizens of Hispanic origin were removed. It was a travesty — it was terrible. To say it’s a success story, it’s ridiculous.”
In some cases, Border patrol agents began rounding up anyone with Latino heritage, leading to the deportation of many LEGAL U.S. citizens. The deportations often went unchecked.
A photo posted by Zach Helwig (@zachhelwig) on
Credit: @zachhelwig / Instagram
It was a terrifying time to be a person of Latino descent as you were unsure whether or not you would be next just because of where your family was from.
During World War II, the U.S. government was facing a labor shortage, so they set up the Bracero Program to bring Mexicans over the border to work for very low wages.
This looks familiar! @lori_flori #americanhistorymuseum @smithsonian #braceroprogram pic.twitter.com/rZCH3wN823
— Anusha Mookherjee (@nooshies) February 22, 2015
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That’s right. The U.S. government set up a system to bring workers from Mexico to work on the fields during World War II for incredibly low wages and when the government felt it unnecessary for them to be here, they were rounded up and shipped out against their will.
Families were ripped apart and the damage to the Latino psyche in the U.S. was palpable and lingering.
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Trump’s reference to Operation Wetback is drawing strong reaction from his usual conservative backers.
#OperationWetback was as shameful USA history as #TuskegeeSyphilis experiments. In both our govt was complicit in the suffering of innocents
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 11, 2015
Credit: @GeraldoRivera / Twitter
And they are pointing out the travesty that was Operation Wetback.
In a single month July 1955 during #operationwetback 88 innocent migrants forcibly ejected from the US died of thirst in the Mexican desert
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 12, 2015
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How are we, as a country, seriously talking about bringing back Operation Wetback?
Even conservative commentator and FOX News anchor Bill O’Reilly told Trump how brutal and inhumane the deportations were.
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O’Reilly: The stuff they did was really brutal. It could never happen today.
Trump: OK. Well. I’ve heard it both ways. I’ve heard good reports; I’ve heard bad reports. We would do it in a very humane way.
Though Trump says he would get it “very humanely done,” he is still not able to clarify what that humane way would be.
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But he promises that it can be accomplished with great management. #hecantbeseriouscanhe
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