<
https://theconversation.com/trump-promises-to-deport-all-undocumented-immigrants-resurrecting-a-1950s-strategy-but-it-didnt-work-then-and-is-less-likely-to-do-so-now-226943>
"While campaigning in Iowa last September, former President Donald Trump made a
promise to voters if he were elected again: “Following the Eisenhower model, we
will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,”
he said. Trump, who made a similar pledge during his first presidential
campaign, has recently repeated this promise at rallies across the country.
Trump was referring to Operation Wetback, a military-style campaign launched by
the Eisenhower administration in the summer of 1954 to end undocumented
immigration by deporting hundreds of thousands of Mexicans. “Wetback” was a
widely used ethnic slur for Mexicans who illegally crossed the Rio Grande, the
river dividing Mexico and the U.S.
Trump says that he can replicate Operation Wetback on a much grander scale by
setting up temporary immigration detention centers and relying on local, state
and federal authorities, including National Guard troops, to remove the
estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.
As a migration scholar, I find Trump’s proposal to be both disturbing and
misleading. Besides playing to unfounded and dehumanizing fears of an immigrant
invasion, it misrepresents the context and impact of Eisenhower’s policy while
ignoring the vastly changed landscape of U.S. immigration today."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
