Operation Wetback
Operation Wetback
-An immigration law enforcement initially created by Joseph Swing in cooperation with the Mexican government. -a system of tactical control and cooperation within the U.S. Border Patrol and alongside the Mexican government
What other offenses were there?
-Beatings -Jailings
Those who were reported did not receive the opportunity to....
-Recover their property in the US -Contact their families
How were the conditions?
-The deportees were often stranded with no food, water, or employment -stranded in 112 degree heat -88 people died
Why did Mexicans cross the border?
-better wages -better opportunities -hunger -misgovernment -population growth
How were Mexicans deported?
-buses -planes -temporary processing stations
There were 300...
-jeeps -cars -buses
What led to Operation Wetback?
-tensions between the program's stated and implicit goals -ineffectiveness in limiting illegal immigration into the US
How many airplanes?
7
Total of immigration and border patrol officers and investigators
750
Despite the Bracero Program....
American growers continued to recruit and hire illegal laborers to meet their labor needs
When was this program implanted?
May 1954
What happened when War World II commenced?
Mexican and American governments developed an agreement known as the Bracero program, which allowed Mexican laborers to work in the United States under short-term contracts
Mexico began discouraging emigration to the United States in the early 1900s
Mexican government officials realized that the laborers leaving for the United States would be needed to industrialize and expand the Mexican economy.
What did some illegal immigrants do?
They fled to Mexico, fearing arrest
Where were the deportees sent?
Unfamiliar parts of Mexico
In exchange, the US....
Was granted stricter border security and the return of illegal Mexican immigrants to Mexico.
The term "wetback" later became...
a derogatory term applied generally to Mexican laborers, including those who were legal residents
"wetback"
a disparaging term applied to illegal entrants who had supposedly sneaked into the U.S. by swimming the Rio Grande
Where did the program originate from?
a request by the Mexican government to stop illegal alien entry of Mexican laborers into the United States, a practice which had been regularized by mutual agreement during World War II by the bracero program
Bracero Program
a series of laws and diplomatic agreements when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico
Joseph Swing
he Director of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service
This program dealt with...
illegal border crossings into the United States by Mexican nationals
88 people died due to....
the neglect of the Mexican government
Why would patrol officers shave immigrants' heads?
to mark repeat offenders who would attempt to reenter the United States
All forms of transportation that were listed...
were only used for Operation Wetback
