In 1954, the U.S. Border Patrol enacted “Operation Wetback,” a campaign to deport Mexican workers who were in the country illegally. The program was called a success and claimed to have rounded up 1 million people, though that number is now contested. US citizens were among the deported and many died due to being left in the desert.

In this episode, Cristina tells Carmen about operation wetback, the context leading up to it and a little bit about the man behind it.

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Music Credit: Hustlin (Instrumental) by Neffex

Sources

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/operation-wetback
https://www.vox.com/politics/380582/mass-deportations-trump-history-alien-enemies
https://theconversation.com/largest-deportation-campaign-in-us-history-is-no-match-for-trumps-plan-73651
https://documents.latimes.com/eisenhower-era-deportations/
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/11/455613993/it-came-up-in-the-debate-here-are-3-things-to-know-about-operation-wetback
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/26/the-long-history-of-deportation-scare-tactics-at-the-u-s-mexico-border/https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/09/08/437579834/mass-deportation-may-sound-unlikely-but-its-happened-before
https://www.history.com/news/operation-wetback-eisenhower-1954-deportation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/operation-wetback/
https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jul/15
https://www.vox.com/2015/11/11/9714842/operation-wetback
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blueprint-of-trump-deportation-plan-a-questionable-approach-by-eisenhower-60-minutes/
https://www.chicano.ucla.edu/files/news/LATimes_EstebanTorres_111315.pdf
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/la-placita-raid/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/18/trump-administration-transition/
https://www.history.com/news/great-depression-repatriation-drives-mexico-deportation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriation
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/trump-election-deport-immigrants-f21a943a
Decade of Betrayal Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, Revised Edition. Francisco E. Balderrama; Raymond Rodríguez