Did Eisenhower Deport Over a Million Mexican Immigrants in 'Operation Wetback'? Rick Shenkman - History News Network
go to original November 16, 2015

Brief narration of the events of Operation Wetback, a 1954 campaign that involved the forced deportation of over one million Mexican-Americans back to Mexico. (kks02011)

Donald Trump has claimed that his plan to deport eleven million or more Mexican immigrants is feasible. Moreover, it wouldn't be a nightmare, as critics allege.

His proof? Dwight Eisenhower deported over a million Mexicans in 1954 and Ike was nice. Historians immediately pointed out that the deportations carried out in the 1950s under Operation Wetback - yes, this was the real name - were often not nice. Some people lost their lives. See here and here.

But was Trump right about the number of people Ike deported? Slate reported that he was. Soon after the New Yorker said it was a myth, citing an article written by Kelly Lytle Hernández, a history professor at U.C.L.A. According to the New Yorker Professor Hernández showed that the "real reduction in undocumented workers was accomplished" by Operation Wetback's campaign to legalize undocumented workers. But the New Yorker's short summary misleads.

Take a look at the facts as reported by Professor Hernández in her article, which was published in the Western Historical Quarterly in 2006 at History News Network

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