Operation Wetback
Though millions of Mexicans had legally entered the country through joint immigration programs in the first half of the 20th century, with some being naturalized citizens and some once native, Operation Wetback was designed to send them to Mexico.
Operation Wetback was primarily a response to pressure from a broad coalition of farmers and business interests concerned with the effects of illegal immigration from Mexico.
Mexico began discouraging emigration to the United States in the early 1900s, beginning with President Porfirio Díaz.
[4] While Mexico did not have extensive capital, its largest asset was abundant, cheap labor, the primary resource needed to modernize the country's economy and develop industrial agribusiness.
[15] The El Paso incident (see slightly below) would begin discussion of establishing a labor pool versus dealing with the "illegal invasion" of these immigrants.
[19] Nearly 70% of people who were attempting to immigrate to America were denied because they were viewed as undesirable for a variety of reasons, including age, gender, or other factors.
Hunger and misgovernment, combined with population growth, prompted many Mexicans to attempt to enter the United States, legally or illegally, in search of wages and a better life.
[23] Mass deportations also affected the growing patterns in California and Arizona; although the United States had promised farm owners additional Bracero labor.
[25] Pressure from well-connected Mexican land and farm owners frustrated with the Bracero program prompted the Mexican government to call a meeting in Mexico City with four agencies of the United States government: the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the INS, and the Border Patrol.
[27] However, in 1954, negotiations surrounding the bracero program broke down, prompting the Mexican government to send 5000 troops to its border with the United States.
[28] In correspondence with assistants to President Dwight Eisenhower, Harlon Carter, head of the Border Patrol, planned Operation Cloud Burst, which requested an executive order to mobilize the military to round up illegal entrants at the southwestern border and to raid migrant camps and businesses in the interior of the United States.
In deference to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, Eisenhower declined to authorize the use of Federal troops, instead appointing Army General Joseph May Swing as the commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
[29][2] Eisenhower gave Swing the power to resolve border control issues in order to stabilize labor negotiations with Mexico.
[36] While the operation included the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, its main targets were border areas in Texas and California.
[35] Overall, there were 1,074,277 "returns", defined as "confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable alien out of the United States not based on an order of removal" in the first year of Operation Wetback.
[39] Despite the decline in sweeps, the total number of Border Patrol agents more than doubled to 1,692 by 1962, and an additional plane was added to the force.
The continuation of illegal immigration, despite the efforts of Operation Wetback, along with public outcry over many US citizens removed, was largely responsible for the failure of the program.
[15] The name "wetback" is a slur applied to illegal entrants who supposedly entered the United States by swimming the Rio Grande.
One of the biggest problems caused by the program for the deportees was sending them to unfamiliar parts of Mexico, where they struggled to find their way home or to continue to support their families.
[39] Certain U.S. Border Patrol agents practiced shaving heads to mark repeat offenders who might attempt to reenter the United States.
Enforcement actions continued to rise under Eisenhower, until reaching a peak of 1.1 million in 1954, the year of Operation Wetback.
