Operation Wetback

Expulsions and repatriations 1940–1960, Dept. of Homeland Security.

Operation Wetback refers to a mass deportation of illegal Mexican immigrants carried out by the United States in 1954 and 1955 .

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The program was started in May 1954 by Herbert Brownell , who was Attorney General in the Eisenhower administration . According to official information, over a million people were deported to Mexico. The action resulted in the deaths of several Mexicans and massive human rights violations and humiliation. Numerous US citizens who could not identify themselves are also said to have been deported.

Origin of name

The word wetback (dt. Wet back ) is a derogatory slang term often used for (illegal) Mexican immigrants and refers to the fact that many of them the border river Rio Grande had to cross to get to the United States.

additional

During the election campaign for the 2016 presidential election , Republican candidate Donald Trump cited Operation Wetback as a solution to the problem of illegal immigrants in the United States.

literature

• Matt S. Meier, Margo Gutiérrez: The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia . Greenwood Publishing Group 2003, ISBN 9780313316432 , p. 292 ( limited online version in Google Book Search - USA )
• Jorge A. Bustamante, Clark Winton Reynolds, Raúl Andrés Hinojosa Ojeda: US-Mexico Relations: Labor Market Interdependence . Stanford University Press 1992, ISBN 9780804720205 , p. 100ff ( limited online version in Google Book Search - USA )
• Francisco Arturo Rosales: Dictionary of Latino civil rights history . Arte Publico Press 2006, ISBN 9781558853478 , p. 335 ( limited online version in Google Book Search - USA )
• Marc S. Rodriguez: Repositioning North American migration history: new directions in modern continental migration, citizenship, and community . University of Rochester Press 2004, ISBN 9781580461580 , pp. 233–248 ( limited online version in Google Book Search - USA )
• David J. Wishart: Encyclopedia of the Great Plains . University of Nebraska Press 2004, ISBN 9780803247871 , p. 366 ( limited online version in Google Book Search - USA )
• Lee Stacy: Mexico and the United States . Marshall Cavendish 2002, ISBN 9780761474029 , pp. 258-259 ( restricted online version in Google Book Search - USA )

Web links

• Operation Wetback . In The Texas Handbook Online .
• John Dillin: How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico in the Christian Science Monitor of July 6, 2006

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hernandez, Kelly L. (2006). "The Crimes and Consequences of Illegal Immigration: A Cross Border Examination of Operation Wetback, 1943-1954." Western Historical Quarterly 37: pp. 421-444.
2. ↑ Koulish, Robert. Immigration and American Democracy: Subverting the Rule of Law. New York: Routledge, 2010.
3. ^ Hernandez, Kelly L. (2006). "The Crimes and Consequences of Illegal Immigration: A Cross Border Examination of Operation Wetback, 1943-1954." Western Historical Quarterly 37: pp. 430, 437-440.
4. ↑ wetback on dictionary.com (accessed February 18, 2016)
5. ↑ NBC on Trump