Transcription
On June 17th, 1954, 2,000 undocumented Mexican workers were deported across the United States Mexican border at the beginning of the most aggressive Mexican deportation program up until that time. Official records state that over the course of the next several months, approximately 1.3 million Mexicans either voluntarily left the United States or were forcibly deported. These mass deportations made up the 1954 campaign known as Operation This is its story. [Music]
By the 1950s, the United States Republic and government had grown worried about the increasing numbers of apprehensions of undocumented Mexicans or wetbacks. The derogatory term comes from the perception that many undocumented workers swam or waited across the Rio Grande to reach the United States. Popular media cited undocumented workers as responsible for increased disease and crime rates, narcotics, security threats, and soaring welfare costs. President Eisenhower was similarly concerned.
In 1954, President Eisenhower appointed General Joseph Swing as head of the Immigration and Naturalization Services, or the INS, in hopes that Swing could resolve the immigration problem. Under Swing's command, the INS and the Border Patrol saw the benefit of a large-scale deportation campaign to relieve this anxiety regarding undocumented workers. This led to the creation of Operation in the summer of 1954.
The 1954 Operation was actually not the first of its kind. The initial Operation model was conceived in 1950. In this model, undocumented workers are not only pursued in transit across the border, but also while living and working in the United States. The 1954 operation simply uses methodology on a greater scale.
On June 17th, 1954, Operation began in California. The operation's commencement involved approximately 750 immigration and border patrol officers and investigators, 300 jeeps, cars, and buses, and seven airplanes. Mobile task forces conducted raids in Mexican-American barios and through traffic stops. These task forces checked cars for undocumented Mexicans. Planes marshaled from Florida, Texas, and California also scarred farms and open country. Workers found to be undocumented were forced onto buses and sent back to Mexico. Soon the raid spread to Arizona and Texas.
The main raids occurred during the summer of 1954 in the agricultural areas of California, Arizona, and Texas, but Operation also involved lesser raids on cities such as Kansas City, Chicago, and Memphis. Officially, approximately 1.3 million Mexicans either voluntarily left the United States immediately before the operation or were forcibly deported during the operation.
Operation also relied heavily on newspaper propaganda to garner support for its cause. Media coverage had been arranged so as to generate favorable publicity for the border patrol on both the local and national level. As undocumented immigrants were rounded up, forced into buses, and deported across the border, the press took photos of officers apprehending dozens and hundreds of undocumented Mexican nationals at a time. The press's involvement created a constant buzz in the headlines of regional and national newspapers throughout June of 1954.
In addition to the mass publicity surrounding the campaign, several historians have suggested that the number of apprehended undocumented workers during Operation was in fact greatly exaggerated. Regardless of the accuracy of the numbers, however, Operation was perceived as a successful campaign at its time. Overall, the press releases of operation helped persuade government officials, the general public, and aggraus interests to recognize the border patrol and INS as an important sector of the government. While the 1954 operation did not curb illegal immigration forever, at the time it was seen as an effective measure to rid the United States of its so-called problem. [Music]