Mexican immigration to America has been significant to the history of both countries ever since they have shared a border. The continued flow of Mexican migrants have been with met a multitude of laws, policies, or doctrines from the United States over the years, each of which represent, to some extent, the broader social and political conditions of the time.
In the decades leading up to the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants entered the United States both legally and illegally, primarily to work on farms in the rural Southwest. Their diasporic communities formed and grew quickly, creating a new generation of Mexican Americans. By the outbreak of the war, the American government was in need of cheap labor to fuel the war effort, both from the increase in demand for manufactured and agricultural goods, and the removal of millions of young men from the traditional workforce who instead served overseas. In response, the governments of the US and Mexico struck a deal known as the Bracero program, which allowed more Mexican laborers to enter the States on short term contracts. The program eventually brought over four million braceros.
Despite the program, illegal immigrants continue to flow into the country, much to the concern of the United States. Under the Eisenhower administration in 1954, a series of deportations would be authorized under the name Operation Wetback. U.S. Border Patrol agents began mass sweeps across the country. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, some of whom were American citizens, were packed into trucks, boats, or planes, and shipped back to Mexico. Stuck in a place they were not familiar with, with no guarantee of jobs, food, water, or shelter, they had to rebuild their lives from scratch. While the federal government boasted that it had successfully deported over a million illegal immigrants in just a few months, the number is likely lower due to the fact that many of those deported returned to the United States several times, only to be deported once more.
Operation Wetback was, overall, a failure. Both the Bracero program and illegal immigration far outlived any consequences that came a result of the operation, other than the continuing legacy of anti-Mexican sentiments in the United States. In fact, the sudden deportation of such a large number of Mexican laborers increased an already high demand for cheap labor, thus also increasing illegal immigration to the United States as whole. It is also important to note the operation’s name, “wetback”. Today it is known as a highly offensive slur towards Mexican Americans, further tarnishing the operation’s legacy.
The operation reentered the minds of mainstream America during the 2016 Republican Presidential primaries, when eventual winner Donald Trump used the operation both as precedent, and as an example for the feasibility of his proposed immigration policy, which included the mass deportation of the millions of illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.
History for Empathy 