Operation Wetback

Operation Wetback was a 1954 operation by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about one million illegal aliens from the southwestern United States, focusing on Mexican nationals. Although the term "wetback" is now considered to be a slur, the problem remains essentially the same as it was in 1954 except that the numbers are now much greater. The recently-passed Arizona law is another long-overdue attempt to deal with the problem of illegal aliens This problem has become much worse since 1954 and even just since 1986when the last amnesty bill was passed. Accordingly, drastic action was called for particularly in the vacuum created by the federal government's ineptness and neglect.

Burgeoning numbers of illegal Mexican aliens prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint his longtime friends, John Cox and General Joseph Swing, as INS Commissioner. It is indeed unfortunate that no presidents since Eisenhower has taken the decisive action needed to curb border violations. According to Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower had a sense of urgency about illegal aliens upon taking office. In a letter to Sen. J. William Fulbright, Eisenhower quoted a report in The New York Times that said, "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican 'wetbacks' (rooted in the watery route taken by the Mexican immigrants across the Rio Grande) 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." It's still happening and has now extended to many other expoitative employers and to many jobs traditionally held by citizens.

Unfortunately, all of the successive Administrations since Eisenhower have continued to appoint ineffective and unethical officials to important immigration policy positions resulting in a gross failure to provide even the semblance of effective border security and internal enforcement.

The original operation was modeled after a program that came to be termed the Mexican Repatriation, which put pressure on citizens of Mexico to return home during the Great Depression, due to the economic crisis in the United States. The Obama Administration should have implemented a similar program when the U.S. descended into a deep recession with double digit unemployment.

The Operation Wetback effort began in California and Arizona, and coordinated 1075 Border Patrol agents, along with state and local police agencies, to mount an aggressive crackdown. Tactics employed included going as far as systematic police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods, and random stops and ID checks of "Mexican-looking" people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics. This remains a problem today in Arizona mainly because racial profiling is illegal. From a strictly effectiveness point of view, profiling makes a great deal of sense. One does not go looking for illegals from Mexico or Central America among the Anglos or the Chinese communities. Hispanic citizens have chosen to take umbrage at this most efficient way to apprehend the illegals. The best way to avoid this situation is for Hispanic citizens to become part of the solution rather than remaining a part of the problem. If Hispanic citizens were willing to come forward with as many legitimate forms of proof as they have, sheriff's offices and police departments could find a way to carefully check these documents and then issue a new, guaranteed, counterfeit-proof biometric ID that would be accepted without question. Citizens would be put to no more trouble than they would be if asked for their drivers' license or other forms of ID. Limiting sweeps to employers places of business or worksites might also help to assuage the concerns of the Hispanic community. Of course, some number of Hispanics object to these procedures not because they represent a significant imposition but because they oppose all effective forms of border security and internal enforcement.

In some cases, during the operation, some American-born minor dependent children were deported with their illegal alien parents. This occurred despite the fact the children were, according to the Supreme Court's interpretation of the 14th amendment, citizens of the United States. Nevertheless, a strong case can be made that parents should be allowed to abandon their minor children in the U.S. To some that would constitute a form of child abuse. The mere act of accompanying their parents would not deprive these minor children of their citizenship.

Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1000 apprehensions per day. By the end of July, over 50,000 immigrants were caught in the two states. An estimated 488,000 illegal immigrants are claimed to have left voluntarily, for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimates that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas of their accord. To discourage illicit re-entry, buses and trains took many deportees deep within Mexican territory, prior to 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 (800 kilometers) to the south. Some were taken as far as 1,000 miles. With the recent improvements in border infrastructure and staffing and a new law to permit sentencing every illegal who is appehended at the border or internally to six months working on border infrastructure, there may be somewhat less incentive to return, especially if all repatriations are classified as involuntary. Involuntary removal invokes stiffer penalties for those who attempt to return and causes them to be classified as felons.