Right now it is time for the way Black History Fact. And today's way Black History Fact comes from Immigrationhistory dot Org. I want to share a disclaimer here. I'm going to be using a word that I think is a disgusting word. It is a very unkind word. But I feel like this needs, this story needs to be told in its fullness so that people are aware of what has happened in this country and what is happening in this country,
and so that people can investigate it further. And so I will be using language that I would not normally use, Nor am I condoning this language, but I need to tell the history and its fullness. Not subject to general immigration restrictions until nineteen sixty five, Mexicans crossed into the United States at rates of about a million per year. In the nineteen fifties, this migration was largely unregulated, and
Southwest agricultural interest depended on Mexican labor. However, national concerns reguarding employment for returning soldiers and uncontrolled migration across the southern border inspired the Immigration Bureau to crack down on Mexican immigrants in the United States, even as the Brasero program continued to recruit temporary Mexican workers. The Immigration Bureau and Border Patrol led these military style roundups, claiming to
have deported one million Mexicans. Among those deported included many US citizens of Mexican descent. In nineteen fifty one, President Truman's Commission on Migratory Labor released a report blaming low wages in the Southwest and social ills on illegal immigration. The quote, the magnitude has reached entirely new levels in the past seven years. In its newly achieved proportions, it
is virtually an invasion sound familiar, the report said. After touring southern California in August nineteen fifty three to assess the impact of illegal immigration, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Attorney General, Herbert Browno Junior, pushed Congress to enact sanctions against employers of undocumented workers and to confiscate the vehicles that were used to bring them to the United States. While neither proposal became law, the administration moved forward on plans for
a deep portation operation. On June ninth, nineteen fifty four, i INS Commissioner General Joseph Swing announced the commencement of Operation wet Back. The first phase of the operation began in California and Arizona. Its effectiveness depended on publicity as well as manpower. Extensive media coverage that often exaggerated the strength of the border patrol, as well as targeted displays of strength, gave the impression of a greater force in
many regions. This strategy convinced thousands who had entered the US illegally to repatriate voluntarily. In Texas, for example, more than sixty three thousand individuals returned to Mexico of their own volition. US officials detained an additional forty two thousand persons in July nineteen fifty four. An IONS report later indicated that the agency apprehended nearly one point one million individuals.
The Ions operation one at least tacit support from several key groups, the Mexican government, labour groups, and in US. Even Mexican American civil rights groups acknowledged the labor problem, but they withheld extensive criticism. While the raids disrupted the growing seasons in California and Arizona, the government pacified farm owners with promises of additional brasero labor. Though the program was touted as a success, its efforts were short lived.
Illegal entry exploded again after the United States terminated the Brescero program in nineteen fifty four. The reason I wanted to share that is because there's nothing new under the sun. We've always had a very good relationship with Mexicans. And I'll speak for myself and Ritzie. Of course you can chime in if you still choose. I'm from California. I
live in Arizona. The land that I live on used to be Mexico and that border and the people that live there, they have come and they have gone forever, and they are not the people that they've been made out to be on in the media.