Revisiting Operation Wetback’s History and the Legacy of Mass Deportations for Latinos 

Determined to create the largest deportation initiative in U.S. history, Trump’s plan parallels a lesser-known chapter in the United States’ past.  

The Origins of Operation Wetback

In the summer of 1955, Mexicali — a city perched on the U.S.-Mexico border — transformed into a scorching purgatory for thousands of Mexican immigrants suddenly stranded there. Under the relentless 120-degree sun, disoriented people roamed the streets, victims of a campaign designed to forcibly strip them of their lives in the United States. The program, known as Operation Wetback, was an Eisenhower-era drive that became the largest mass deportation of Mexican immigrants in U.S. history. Official U.S. reports cited a staggering 1.3 million deportees, though historians estimate the true number to be closer to 300,000. 

The operation wielded military-style tactics to sweep through cities, farms, and factories, forcibly removing thousands, some of whom were even U.S. citizens. Led by Border Patrol chief Harlon B. Carter, whose own past included a fatal shooting of a Latino teenager, Operation Wetback was executed with the ruthless precision of a military assault. Carter, later to head the NRA, coordinated with General Joseph Swing of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and together, they launched relentless raids on immigrant communities. 

Operation Wetback’s methods were intense. Many immigrants were packed onto buses, planes, and ships, enduring such harsh conditions that some vessels earned comparisons to slave ships. As deportees arrived in unfamiliar parts of Mexico, they faced life-threatening heat, minimal shelter, and scarce medical care. In Texas, deported immigrants were held on boats with no protection from the searing sun, resulting in fatalities from heatstroke, exhaustion, and disease. In Chicago, mass deportations became routine, with planes flying Mexican immigrants back three times weekly. 

Immigrants Make America Great Yet Mass Deportations Has Always Been a Theme

The roots of this deportation campaign stretched back to earlier decades, reflecting a history of fluctuating U.S. immigration policies. During the Great Depression, the federal government launched waves of deportations targeting Mexican-born workers to curb New Deal welfare costs, deporting more than a million Mexican-Americans and Mexicans, including U.S. citizens. Labeled “repatriation” to soften its appearance, these removals were anything but voluntary. Then, in 1942, as the U.S. faced a wartime labor shortage, Mexican workers were once again invited back under the Bracero Program, a temporary labor agreement that guaranteed wages and humane treatment. Over the next two decades, the program funneled 4.6 million Mexicans into the country, particularly to California’s agriculture sector. 

Yet, in regions like South Texas, many employers sidestepped the Bracero Program, hiring undocumented workers at lower wages. To Carter, this posed a growing “threat,” one that he believed required a militarized response. In 1953, he pushed to involve the National Guard in Texan farm raids, but federal laws forbidding military involvement in domestic enforcement thwarted his efforts. Undeterred, Carter launched Operation Wetback in 1954, deploying Border Patrol resources with unprecedented force. 

Meanwhile, the Mexican government saw the return of deported citizens as a way to address its labor shortages. U.S. authorities found that enforcing Operation Wetback meant pressuring both immigrants and their employers. Behind closed doors, they offered Texan employers watered-down versions of Bracero permits, allowing employers to keep laborers legally without meeting the program’s full requirements. This expansion of the Bracero workforce provided legal status for some, even as thousands of undocumented workers faced deportation. 

Mass deportation continues to be a part of U.S. initiatives today. Will there be other campaigns like Operation Wetback? Only time will tell.