What the Mass Deportation of Immigrants Might Look Like: “Operation Wetback” didn’t merely enforce immigration law—it enforced the idea that American citizens are white.
Ira Gay Sealy/Denver Post/Getty
Without using its offensive moniker, Donald Trump has spoke fondly of “Operation Wetback,” the mass deportation campaign in the Eisenhower administration that resulted in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of persons of Mexican ancestry from the United States. Louis Hyman and Natasha Iskander remind us of the civil rights consequences of the campaign against Mexican workers. They conclude:
“To return to the era of Operation Wetback would be to return to an America ruled not by law but by terror. We will not strengthen our economy by persecuting the most vulnerable. Launching a massive deportation drive will not preserve jobs for American workers. What it will do is draw racial borders around our citizenry and restore whiteness as a necessary condition for being a real American.”
NPR also summarizes the damage of “Operation Wetback” here.
KJ
Posted in: