I Get E-Mail About Illegals

Left: A chart from the source of all good and true things, the Internet...


J. send this:

Back during The Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work.

Harry Truman deported over two million Illegal's after WWII to create jobs for returning veterans.

And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexican nationals! The program was called 'Operation Wetback' so that American WWII and Korean veterans had a better chance at jobs.

It took 2 years, but they deported them!

Now, if they could deport the illegals back then, they can sure do it today!!

If you have doubts about the veracity of this information, enter Operation Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself.

Reminder: Don't forget to pay your taxes...12 million Illegal Aliens are depending on you!

Well, the numbers don't seem to add up. Thirteen million is the claim of illegals deported, but there weren't anything like that number in the U.S. at the time. According to Wikipedia, many fewer were deported, at considerable cost:

History

Burgeoning numbers of illegal aliens prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint his longtime friend, General Joseph Swing, as INS Commissioner. According to Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration upon taking office. In a letter to Sen. William Fulbright, Eisenhower quoted a report in The New York Times that said, "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican 'wetbacks' (rooted from the watery route taken by the Mexican immigrants across the Rio Grande) to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government."

The operation was modeled after a program that put pressure on American citizens of Mexican ancestry to move to Mexico during the Great Depression because of the bad economic situation in the United States. (See Mexican Repatriation.)

Operation Wetback in action

The effort began in California and Arizona and coordinated 1075 Border Patrol agents, along with state and local police agencies, to mount an aggressive crackdown, going as far as police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods and random stops and ID checks of "Mexican-looking" people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics. 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 immigrants were caught in the two states. Around 488,000 illegal immigrants are claimed to have left voluntarily for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimates that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas on their own. To discourage re-entry, buses and trains took many deportees deep within Mexico before releasing them. Tens of thousands more were deported by two chartered ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried them from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) to the south. Some were taken as far as 1,000 miles. Deportation by sea was ended after seven deportees jumped overboard from the Mercurio and drowned, provoked a mutiny and leading to a public outcry in Mexico.

Nevertheless, despite these efforts, illegal immigration has accelerated, especially since the late 80’s. Why?

It’s a matter of supply and demand. The Mexican birth rate was extraordinarily high in the 1960’s – 6 children per couple (it’s been much lower since then, about 2 children per couple since 1970) and all those workers were entering the labor market by the late 80’s. So, there was a big supply of excess labor.

Plus, American businesses and homeowners were hiring at an extraordinary rate. When there are jobs to fill, people get less picky about legal formalities. So, big demand, particularly in the construction trades in the burgeoning Sunbelt.

Note that the illegals are no longer confined to unskilled labor, or the Southwest, but have entered all kinds of skilled labor all over the country. Indeed, in some places and jobs, they are nearly indispensable.

Note that illegal immigration increased during Democratic and Republican administrations alike. The market is driven by business considerations, not ideology or approach to governing.

Since the economic crisis started, the number of illegal immigrants has dropped about 10%, and is likely to drop more - even without disruptive campaigns by the INS to clamp down on illegals. I suppose Obama could claim credit for the big reduction when he runs for reelection in 2012, but it’s a pretty cheap claim. And numbers are likely to spring back when economic conditions improve.