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Operation Wetback

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President Eisenhower; The silhouette of a hand pressing into a fence that is blocking the American flag.

The Shaky History of Mass Deportations

‘Operation Wetback’ and ‘Mexican Repatriation’ worked—until they didn’t.
by Benjamin Montoya via The Dispatch on March 5, 2025
Mexican immigrants huddled in a cage during Operation Wetback.

Trump's Deportation Model

A 1950s mass deportation campaign shows that abuse and dehumanization are intrinsic to immigrant detention.
by Ana Raquel Minian via Dissent on October 31, 2024
A U.S. Border Patrol officer shows how he found an undocumented Mexican immigrant under the hood of a car along the U.S.-Mexican border in March 1954.

Trump Promises to Deport All Undocumented Immigrants, Resurrecting a 1950s Strategy

Donald Trump says he will authorize a roundup of all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. A 1950s program with similar goals offers lessons.
by Katrina Burgess via The Conversation on May 6, 2024

What the Mass Deportation of Immigrants Might Look Like

Operation Wetback didn't merely enforce immigration law-it enforced the idea that American citizens are white.
by Shannon Keating via Slate on November 16, 2016
Bracero workers in line getting paperwork filled out.

A New Bracero Program Is Not the Solution

An Eisenhower-era initiative holds key lessons for Trump’s immigration policy.
by Mae Ngai via The Atlantic on December 9, 2024
Some attendees of the Republican National Convention hold "Mass Deportation Now" signs on July 17, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Trump’s Massive Deportation Plan Echoes Concentration Camp History

Trump’s language about immigrants “poisoning” the U.S. repeats past rhetoric that led to civilian detention camps, with horrific, tragic results.
by Andrea Pitzer via Scientific American on July 23, 2024

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

A conversation between a historian and the creator of a new documentary short about NRA leader Harlon Carter.
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Sierra Pettengill via Boston Review on May 7, 2021

The Deportation Machine

A new book documents the history of three specific mechanisms of expulsion: formal deportation, voluntary departure, and "self-deportation."
by Hilary Goodfriend via NACLA on September 25, 2020
Border patrol guarding a group of men sitting on the ground.

The Long History of Deportation Scare Tactics at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The precedents for Trump’s hyped-up immigration crackdown.
by Kelly Lytle Hernández, Cora Currier via The Intercept on February 26, 2017
ICE officers knock on the door of a residence.

Trump Is Drawing on Cold War–Era Repressive Tactics

A previous, dark period of American history paired ethnic exclusion through mass deportations and ideological exclusion through political repression.
by David Bacon via Jacobin on January 29, 2025
graph of historic immigration data

How America Tried and Failed to Stay White

100 years ago the U.S. tried to limit immigration to White Europeans. Instead, diversity triumphed.
by Eduardo Porter, Youyou Zhou via Washington Post on May 15, 2024
Collage of photographs of U.S. Border Patrol.

The Racist Origins of America’s Broken Immigration System

How a little-known, century-old law perpetuated the odious notion that certain types of immigrants degrade our nation’s character.
by Felipe De La Hoz via The New Republic on May 1, 2024
Mexican American men standing near a mural and a low rider car in Chicago in 1987.

The Past and Future of Mexican Chicago

From the machine politicians in La Villita to the radicals in Pilsen, Mexican Chicagoans have played a central role in defining their city. 
by Juan Ignacio Mora via The Nation on January 10, 2023
A picture of armed militias

What the Term “Gun Culture” Misses About White Supremacy

The rise of tactical gun culture among civilians reveals a new front in the U.S. battle against nativist authoritarianism.
by Chad Kautzer via Boston Review on December 17, 2021
Television camera operator at work.
partner

Latino Empowerment Through Public Broadcasting

How Latinos have used public radio and television to communicate their cultures, histories, hopes, and concerns.
by Alexandra García, Gabriela Rivera via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on November 23, 2021

How the U.S. Weaponized the Border Wall

The borderlands have “been transformed into a vast graveyard of the missing.”
by Greg Grandin via The Intercept on February 10, 2019

The Border Patrol has Been a Cult of Brutality Since 1924

The U.S. needs a historical reckoning with the true cause of the border crisis: the long, brutal history of border enforcement itself.
by Greg Grandin via The Intercept on January 12, 2019
Painting of cavalry with swords drawn heading into U.S.-Mexico War battle.

American Extremism Has Always Flowed from the Border

Donald Trump says there is “a crisis of the soul” at the border. He is right, though not in the way he thinks.
by Greg Grandin via Boston Review on January 9, 2019
Border patrol guarding a group of men sitting on the ground.
partner

A Wall Can’t Solve America’s Addiction to Undocumented Immigration

For more than 70 years, undocumented immigrants have shaped the American economy.
by Julia G. Young via Made By History on January 9, 2019
The river between modern-day El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juarez, CH from the 1857 Mexican Boundary Survey

The River That Became a Warzone

The US-Mexico border wall is disrupting and destroying the lives of a united binational community.
by Zeke Peña via The Nib on December 21, 2017

Border Patrol - Our Oral History

A compilation of interviews with former U.S. Border Patrol officers who served from the 1930s-1960s.
via Border Patrol Museum on May 16, 1987

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