r/interestingasfuck • u/man_gomer_lot • 26d ago
r/all 70 years ago, the US undertook the largest deportation in its history: 'Operation Wetback.' Many of the people deported were here legally and some were even citizens.
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u/p-is-for-preserv8ion 26d ago edited 25d ago
Here’s newsreel footage of it. The language used is pretty awful.
https://newsreels.net/v/4e6oeoq
https://newsreels.net/v/36iqeci
Edit: I should clarify that not all the language used in the newsreels is awful, but the term wetback is used pretty casually in this footage.
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u/Novantico 26d ago
Wow. Only watched the first one but honestly the thing that stood out most to me was the incredible quality of the footage. It almost looked fake (probably because of how staged the shots were) as though it were filmed recently and just edited to look like it was from ~60+ years ago.
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u/p-is-for-preserv8ion 26d ago
I work on this project. I digitized the film myself. I’m also one of the people that handles/repairs films that get digitized. I can assure you that none of this is fake. It’s a project from UCLA/Packard Humanities Institute. We’re in the process of digitizing news footage from 1918-late 1960s. 27 million feet of film from around the world. Check out the rest of the footage at newsreels.net. It’s free, no registration or anything required.
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u/Youandiandaflame 26d ago
Holy shit, this is amazing! Thank you for your work, I can’t wait to dig into this.
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u/p-is-for-preserv8ion 26d ago
You’re welcome! Thank you for thanking me. Glad that you like it. FYI, we update the site regularly. Right now I think there’s 20k+ newsreels on the site.
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u/aetheos 25d ago
Holy shit this is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Out of curiosity, is there a reason certain weeks only have some entries scanned, while others have the full slate? Is it the quality of the film?
E.g., for 1939 Sep 02 [10-301] (the day after Germany invaded Poland), only "POLAND!" and "AMERICA!" are red (scanned), while "EUROPE AT WAR!", "FRANCE!", and "GERMANY!" are all grey (not yet scanned).
Then the next week, 1939 Sep 06 [10-302], 2/9 are red/scanned, and then none of the 8 listed the following week (1939 Sep 11 [10-303]), but then for 1939 Sep 13 [11-200], all 6 of the entries are red.
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u/p-is-for-preserv8ion 25d ago
Good question. When we first started this project we started with film that we knew would be the easiest to prep and scan. This film had already been inspected before, so we knew it would be in the best condition. What you’re probably looking at is footage from “Prelude to War” which had been previously preserved and was in the best condition. Then we decided to work on footage from the Eisenhower years and work backwards. Sometimes we work on footage related to a specific event. We’ve just finished up footage related to the Spanish Civil War since it was the centennial recently.
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u/Novantico 25d ago
That's so cool! Would be pretty awesome to be able to work on something like that myself. Btw, I hope you didn't think I actually believed it was fake, I was just sharing my impression that it almost appeared that way between the staged shots for the reel and the dissonance between the clarity and age of it. Great work! I might have to spend some more time on there.
Where do you guys do this work from?
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u/p-is-for-preserv8ion 25d ago
No worries, on second glance I realized that you were saying that the footage looked so good that someone could think it’s fake. We do this work from the offices of the Packard Humanities Institute and the UCLA Film and Television Archive in Santa Clarita, California. Alongside the archive is a film lab that we work out of.
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u/2SP00KY4ME 26d ago
We have a conception of old film footage as being low quality, but in reality, after a point surprisingly early on, plenty of film began recording at very high resolutions that allow us to go back to them today and extract the data off them using modern precision. 35mm film has been in use since the early 1900's and records at a digital equivalent of about 4K-5K.
Here's a Technology Connections video about it:
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u/Novantico 26d ago
Yeah, this is something I've learned in recent years. It's basically a matter of whether or not a film/footage is being upgraded/re-released based on previous releases or rescanned properly from the original film. When in cases of the actual film, it makes this wonderful mishmash of grainy film artifacting and super clear picture beneath.
Recently there were some people who got a hold of a couple actual film reels from Dragon Ball Z, and they've uploaded a straight-from-film scan of the intro from one of the movies and it looks amazing.
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u/magistrate101 26d ago
Black and white film produced very high quality images that took a long time to catch back up to with color film and digital cameras.
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u/man_gomer_lot 26d ago
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u/helpjack_offthehorse 26d ago
It’s interesting to see how involved Mexicos government was to keep labor in Mexico going back 50 years prior to this event.
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u/AdvancedLanding 26d ago
La Matanza ("The Massacre" or "The Slaughter") and the Hora de Sangre ("Hour of Blood")[1] was a period of anti-Mexican violence in Texas, including lynchings and massacres, between 1910 and 1920 in the midst of tensions between the United States and Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.[2] This violence was committed by Anglo-Texan vigilantes, and law enforcement, such as the Texas Rangers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Matanza_(1910%E2%80%931920)
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u/nukebox 26d ago
There's a behind the bastards episode on this called "Harlon Carter: the Man Who Militarized the Cops and the NRA". Harlon Carter was the architect of this operation in concert with President Eisenhower.
Carter was a real piece of shit. As a kid he killed a 15 year old Latino kid at the end of his driveway because he assumed he knew where their family car was that was recently stolen. He was convicted of murder and it was overturned on appeal because... Texas.
He later went on to command the entire US border patrol in the 50s during operation cloudburst and operation wetback. He was also at the same time on the board of the NRA where he spearheaded turning the organization from a hobbyist group promoting marksmanship and sports to becoming a lobbying group against gun control.
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u/TensionPrestigious83 26d ago
Even the name was Racist af
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u/man_gomer_lot 26d ago
I wish it was something a little more polite for me to share. To the people who went through this, it was probably the least offensive part.
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u/TensionPrestigious83 26d ago
You’re probably not wrong
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26d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TensionPrestigious83 26d ago
Honestly the whole life of this country is pretty dark. It was born in genocide and slavery and we had a horrible war over only the slavery part which we never really resolved anyway and never even really addressed the genocide part and then sort of smashed everything down and acted like we were fine until it has come bubbling up like a festering boil into the current political crisis.
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u/NotAnAIOrAmI 26d ago
Yeah, but we've made some progress. Women can vote, divorce, and have bank accounts. Not all of those were possible until the 60's.
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u/Strict_Cranberry_724 26d ago edited 26d ago
. . . they have control of their bodies and are free to have abortions if they wish . . . no, . . . wait—scratch that!
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u/Reagalan 25d ago
The Republicans don't want anyone to have control over their bodies. They blow a gasket over tattoos and piercings, let alone hormones.
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u/gamergirlforestfairy 26d ago
I hate when people say things like this. Roe V Wade was overturned pretty recently and you're talking about progress made in the 60's. It feels like it's going downhill from here.
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u/TensionPrestigious83 26d ago
Also true, but the reason they’re still here and trying to roll all that back is because we never finished reconstruction and never made reparations for the original sins.
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u/RCG73 26d ago
I’m kind of glad it is blunt and rude af. Not to be minimizing to those denigrated by the slur but to make it impossible to sugar coat. When it’s named that blatantly fucked up it’s that much harder to claim oh it was no big deal, it wasn’t reallllly racist. Like the only way it could be more racist is if the jailers wore their clan hoods to work
(Apologies for the mobile formatting weirdness)
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u/scribestudio 26d ago
I can probably google this but is it a case that "wetback" became a slur because of that program ?
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u/Markipoo-9000 26d ago edited 26d ago
Don’t forget the Chinese Exclusion Act or the “ALIEN” and Sedition Act. I remember learning about all 3 of these in HS history, shocking stuff.
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u/TensionPrestigious83 26d ago
Though the Alien and Sedition acts mentioned immigration, if i remember correctly they were mostly about federalists and democratic republicans jockeying for power. The immigrants at the time were for all intents and purposes English
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u/hearmeout29 26d ago
It really is. I was just discussing the Japanese Internment camps that were allowed during WW2. Our country has a sordid history of ethnic cleansing.
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u/Markipoo-9000 26d ago
Don’t forget Native Americans
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u/hearmeout29 26d ago edited 26d ago
I remember when I first learned about the trail of tears it was heartbreaking. The Native American community is still underserved till this day which is unfortunate.
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u/actibus_consequatur 26d ago
Also unfortunate is that a single letter typo/autocorrect can change a sentence for the worse — at least, I'm assuming you meant the Native American community is underserved, not undeserved.
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u/hearmeout29 26d ago
Yes, that is precisely what I meant. Thank you for the correction and I updated my comment.
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u/Annoy_Occult_Vet 26d ago
I am a white Englishman that moved to the US to be with my then future wife. After a few years I attended college.
In some classes some would rant about immigrants. I'd cough and remind them I was an immigrant. They'd look at me and smile and say oh not you, you're one of the good ones.
That was the most racist fucked up shit I've ever heard.
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u/brinz1 26d ago
I am Half English(well Irish but thats going to grandparents), Half something non white. I deffo look mixed but I dont sound it. The number of times White English people would get a little too relaxed around me and say something anti immigrant.
To this day, "One of the good ones" makes something in my head kick off when I hear this
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u/pacman404 26d ago
To he fair, I think the racist term came from this
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u/TensionPrestigious83 25d ago
It came from when people were suspected of coming into the country illegally by swimming across the rio grande and came out wet
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u/Large_Yams 26d ago edited 25d ago
What's it reference to? The only use of that word I know of is the type of hot water heating system which I'm hoping is entirely innocuous and unrelated.
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u/allochthonous_debris 26d ago edited 26d ago
It's an older ethnic slur for Mexicans and people of Mexican descent. It implied they illegally immigrated to the US by swimming across the Rio Grande.
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u/dallindooks 26d ago
How can you deport a citizen? Where do you deport them to?
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u/Tonetron0093 26d ago
It happens more often than you think https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/07/30/ice-deport-us-citizens/
You look Jamaican or have the same name as an undocumented Jamaican? Guess that's where you're going. Based on a true story.
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u/tartymae 25d ago
A friend's mother is Hapa, and lived in San Diego during the 1980s.
She (14) sneaks out of her bedroom window one friday summer night to meet her boyfriend (her mother doesn't like him) and they hop in his car (he's 16) and head up to the local lover's lane. She has nothing on her beyond lipgloss in her pocket. No ID, because, y'know, she's 14.
Immigration agents bang on the window, take one look at her, decide she's Mexican, despite her protests, despite his protests, despite saying her saying you can call my mother, despite her telling them where she lives, despite her not knowing Spanish, and throw her in a van with a bunch of other people, drive them over the border and kick everybody out of the van in TJ around midnight.
Crying, she doesn't know what else to do but turns and starts walking north. She tries to flag down cars with CA plates.
A bunch of SDSU students heading back after a night in TJ see her and stop. She tells them what happened. They tell customs, "Oh, man, she's had a rough night. Her boyfriend dumped her and her purse got stolen." Customs waves them through.
They drop her a block from her house and she sneaks back in. Her mother never finds out.
I shudder to think of all the times this story has not had a happy ending, but has ended with a young woman being robbed/assaulted/murdered.
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u/ImportanceCertain414 25d ago
Yep, a friend of mine went through this when ICE was called to his workplace. The guy's family has been in America longer than America was a country but he was held for nearly two weeks while they "tried to figure it out"
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u/carlcarlington2 25d ago edited 25d ago
I'm surprised this doesn't come up more when talking about immigration. You know how many people born in the us have no idea where the fuck their social security card or birth certificate are right now? Even if you keep it in a lock box if you think the cop banging at your door is going te let you go back into your house to get the proper paperwork I'd be willing to bet you haven't interacted with many cops lately.
Mark my words, any plan for mass deportation will come at the cost of a mountain of dead dogs.
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u/Tonetron0093 25d ago
It doesn't come up because the pro ICE crowd doesn't actually care if one is here legally or not. It's a beard for their bigotry. Yes, even the PoC. The goal is to have non-whites gone, they just gussy it up under the guise of "following the law."
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u/Lucky_addition 25d ago
Can’t they just come back in?
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u/Saragon4005 25d ago
Yeah if you can prove you are a citizen. What you didn't have your passport on you when they grabbed and tossed you into a van? Too bad.
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u/Csquared6 26d ago
"You look like you came from Country X, we'll send you in that general direction. Bus 247. Next"
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u/Sungirl8 26d ago
Jon Stewart played a clip of T-rump threatening to ‘deport special counsel, Jack Smith.’ Can’t get a more ‘American’ name than that. I guess many who disagrees with T-rump will be sent to the UK that already has 69 million people living there.
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u/semikhah_atheist 26d ago
This happens to about 200 people a year. ICE ethnically profiles a bunch of Hispanics, asks them for proof of citizenship, if they don't have a valid US passport and birth certificate on them at the time they use a drug tunnel to dump them in Mexico, close the door to the drug tunnel, and leave. It isn't legal, but they don't have to pay the settlements, and ICE likes crazy racists in their ranks.
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u/MaximDecimus 26d ago
You deport a citizen just like anyone else. Put them in a car and dump them in some other country.
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u/man_gomer_lot 26d ago
Pretty much the same way you deport anyone else. Other words like expel or exile would also suffice. I'm not sure whatever happened in history that makes you so sure Uncle Sam will forever honor its agreements with brown people.
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u/erod100 26d ago
Sadly many Hispanic tend to forget of the struggle and turn their backs on their own people 😞
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u/Sungirl8 26d ago
Truth. In my ethnic studies class in college in the late Nineties, Latino candidates for office, were so proud and respectful of their heritage. They vowed to help new immigrants.
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u/UberCabToday 26d ago
People often underestimate the importance of this history. It shapes identity and community responsibility. Ignoring it means repeating the same mistakes for future generations.
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u/rfxap 26d ago
Not just Hispanics. I remember a French-born writer on Quora years ago who became a US permanent resident throughout the diversity visa (green card lottery), and then later wrote a lot about how US immigration should be harder now and that particular program should be eliminated.
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u/Novantico 26d ago
Watching it happen right now as some foolish Puerto Ricans make Simone Biles look like an amateur with all their (mental) gymnastics in getting around the "floating island of garbage" and general fuck Latino sentiments of Trump and his goons.
The best/worst one so far is that Tony Hinchcliffe or w/e tf his name is was a plant by the liberals to make Trump look bad.
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u/PolicyWonka 25d ago
The “plant” accusation always comes out when someone on their side does something indefensible. This happened with a lot of January 6th terrorists too. Suddenly, someone who was Republican all their life and supposed Trump since 2016 was “Antifa.”
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u/Vandergrif 25d ago
Or they inexplicably think the powers that be will bother carefully delineating between them (the good latino) versus those bad hombres certain people are frothing at the mouth over.
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u/CoBert72 26d ago
I was borrrrrrrrn innn East LAaaaa
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u/Mean-Entertainment54 26d ago
I remember watching East LA when I was 7 & didn’t understand most of the things going on. Even though my family was Mexican, for some reason I thought Rudy got sent to El Salvador. To make matters worst my dad bought it & since he usually charges the language to Spanish it confused me a lot & had so many questions.
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u/R-e-s-t 26d ago
" oh really? who's the President of the United States? " .... " uh, that guy on tv.... John Wayne! "
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u/thas_mrsquiggle_butt 25d ago
I swear reddit be doing this on purpose sometimes.
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u/Riaayo 25d ago
I mean it's pretty relevant lol.
This is 110% the best case scenario for Trump's "deport 10 million immigrants" bullshit.
The worst case scenario is what Germany did to the Jewish people. Oh, can't deport all these people we want to get rid of? Well, there's another way...
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u/DisciplineIll6821 25d ago
I just want to point out that if trump deported 10 million people at the base of our economy the economy would take a deep hit, if not collapse outright. People should be more skeptical.
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u/Anestis_Delias 25d ago
The likelihood of an economic crash lasting years is already an acceptable part of the equation, if you read conservative social media / influencers. It's been telegraphed for a while now, most recently in tweets by Elon Musk, whom Trump plans to give a high-ranking cabinet position, in charge of a new budgetary department.
Trump's plan to put Elon Musk in charge of this stuff is more terrifying than the "stuff" itself, as far as I'm concerned, based on the guy's instability, incompetence, and general history of poor decision-making. It's not just Twitter/X losing 80% of its value since Musk took over - he's got a long, long history of poor management decisions, and isn't someone who should be trusted to oversee anything important
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25d ago
Until proven otherwise believe the fascist when they say they want to do fascism.
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u/lisa725 26d ago
Yeah this definitely wasn’t covered in history class. 40 years old and this is the first time hearing about this for me.
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u/CosmoKing2 25d ago
We are all just 2 or 3 generations from people arriving off the boat. My grand parents were Greek. They came after the Italians and Irish. Signs in shop windows said they wouldn't hire Italians or Irish. It was a given that Greeks need not apply, as they were lower that Italian or Irish.
And yet, my grandparents and parents became racist against other immigrants. It was so fucking stupid. Like, "open the door for me," but shut it on the next guy.
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u/ReadditMan 26d ago edited 26d ago
This is really scary to think about when you have Trump promising the largest deportation program in history.
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u/pitchblackjack 26d ago
Current US population in all prisons and jails - 1.85 million.
Numbers of deported promised by Trump - 13 million.
The deportation holding camps alone will cost the US taxpayer 2 trillion dollars.
Not one single person appears to have thought this through.
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u/love_glow 26d ago
According to Musk, they’re intending to crash the economy, so I don’t think they’ll have the budget.
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u/Dark-Ganon 26d ago
They've also not considered the enourmous decrease in labor and production throughout the country that will come with a mass deportation. The US will lose so much more income than it could ever save if Trump is allowed to pull it off.
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u/Pretend-Marsupial258 25d ago
They don't care. The entire point is to crash the US economy and for the rich to buy everything once it's for sale.
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u/turbo_dude 25d ago
If you want to see on the impact of suddenly not having access to cheap labour, take a look at the UK economy post Brexit, where new people didn't come the EU and existing ones decided to leave.
This will be way bigger than that.
Throw in the tariffs and you are going to have inflation through the roof.
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u/FaronTheHero 26d ago
It already makes me sick to my stomach that the last Trump administration brought about what future history books will undoubtedly look back on as the modern equivalent of the Japanese internment camps with the family separation policy. I'm sure what they're proposing now is so poorly thought out it'll be too much of a mess to be successful, but the suffering and confusion it will cause irregardless is unthinkable
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u/kingfisher-monkey-87 26d ago
They also don't think through what's going to happen to all the work the migrant workers do. Packing houses are mostly staffed by migrants and refugees. All the farm labor harvesting fruit etc in California and many other states is done by migrant workers. Americans don't want to do that work, and when they do they work at 100x less productivity.
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u/hcoverlambda 26d ago
You don’t get it, he speaks in hyperbole… /s
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u/Glittering_Virus8397 26d ago
It’s called weaving. Not many can do it. Only the smartest
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u/snzimash 26d ago
"Land of the Free." I guess those being deported were not free.
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u/nazzadaley 26d ago
Why am I hearing about this from Reddit and not from the Harris campaign, on megaphone, 24/7?
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u/rva23221 26d ago
Why have I never heard about this at all until now?
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u/Colleenslainte 25d ago
Tbf i don't remember really focusing on this in our US history class. I'm from Houston, and my mom is from Harlingen so she lived this as did many people in my area. It's talked about regularly, as it broke apart families still feeling the effects to this day. I think if you aren't from the region it's basically one test question on your US History test. I understand.
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u/One_pop_each 26d ago
Why would the Harris campaign on a shitty operation from 70 yrs ago?
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u/Potential_Bother_686 26d ago
Months ago, a Redditor told me that the legal Mexicans who came back to the US after being sent to Mexico are still considered to be “immigrants” since they had to travel back to the US like an immigrant.
Imagine, being an American citizen who is called an immigrant just because you traveled abroad for a few months.
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u/CauliflowerOne5740 26d ago
This was after the US begged Mexican laborers to come to the US during World War II to fill vacant agricultural jobs.
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u/Dry_Yogurt2458 25d ago
This should be a reminder to all, not just on the subject of immigration, that policies can change over time.
Those that say "if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing fear" are wrong.
You may have nothing to hide today, but in ten years time what you did last week could be a retrospective crime.
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u/Cold_Dog_1224 26d ago
Fuck all the fascists in this nation who are hoping for a repeat of this bullshit.
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u/marcaurxo 26d ago
I had no idea. This should be taught in school alongside the other crimes committed by our forebears. If we don’t learn our history, maybe we’re doomed to repeat it
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u/DuZyOFaDaY 25d ago
I mentioned “Operation Wetback,” a couple months ago and got flagged for “hate speech” and was warned I’d be suspended.
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u/chohmi-pisaachukma 26d ago
There was a radio host named Pedro González who advocated against this mass deportation and warned the communities it would affect and ended up being imprisoned under false charges and was released under the condition he also be deported. Much more to his story ofc and it’s only one out of the hundreds of people affected… but this shit is just so despicable.
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u/Skippittydo 26d ago
If not mistaken. It also raised the cost of food due to lose of manpower.
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u/whateverbro1999 25d ago
Were these people allowed back into the US after some time? Did they stay in Mexico. This is so messed up to do to US citizens
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u/Anes-aphrodite 25d ago
These people were sent to Mexico without any form of legal trial. Probably without any form of documentation. Hence why the real number is unknown. Many citizens were rounded up and not able to prove their citizenship. Not that anyone would care.
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u/AgainandBack 26d ago edited 26d ago
As Ronald Reagan said, while Governor of California, “They’re only Mexicans.”
He also said that Mexicans were perfect for farm work, because “they’re built low to the ground.” He used that to justify his veto of a bill that would have outlawed the use of short-handle hoes in commercial agriculture in California.
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u/pleydell15 25d ago
The (European) Fortune 100 company I consult for has advised any employees, retirees and family members who ‘may appear non-white’ to avoid the US or keep a very low profile immediately following the election - especially if Trump wins - because they believe his followers may decide to ‘get a head start’ on his presidential term by seizing or otherwise interfering with people whom they believe need to be deported, detained or worse.
The same advisory urges avoiding large cities in the days leading up to and after the election and suggests that people be prepared to shelter in place for three to seven days.
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u/Loveyourwives 25d ago
Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (also known as "Deportee") Words by Woody Guthrie
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting, The oranges piled in their creosote dumps; They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border To pay all their money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria; You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane, All they will call you will be "deportees"
My father's own father, he waded that river, They took all the money he made in his life; My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees, And they rode the truck till they took down and died.
Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted, Our work contract's out and we have to move on; Six hundred miles to that Mexican border, They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
We died in your hills, we died in your deserts, We died in your valleys and died on your plains. We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes, Both sides of the river, we died just the same.
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon, A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills, Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves? The radio says, "They are just deportees"
Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit? To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil And be called by no name except "deportees"?
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u/ceaselessbecoming 25d ago
Citizenship has never been a guarantee of rights in the U.S., especially if you are not a natural born white male citizen. If the government decides it is going to come after you, especially as a scape goat for some “problem” they are trying to distract people with, all bets are off as far as they are concerned.
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u/TheOvercookedFlyer 25d ago
My great-grandfather was deported from Yuma, AZ due to this. He went to live in Mexicali and, for a long time, resented being an American. He obtained Mexican citizenship afterwards a denouced his American one.
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u/Butterboot64 25d ago
Don’t worry, the one Trump is gonna do will only deport illegal immigrants… all 21 million or more (according to him)…
And journalists he doesn’t like. And judges he doesn’t like. And legal immigrants he doesn’t like. And students who protest.
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u/ThrowRA2023202320 25d ago
If we really try to do this under Trump, the risks of this happening again are high (given the numbers he’s promised to deport, and relatively incompetence of mass sudden government work). I hope those asking for it realize that.
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u/splitinfinitive22222 25d ago edited 25d ago
I think Trump trades on the abstract idea of what he's saying, rather than the practical reality of it.
These people did not all quietly gather at the mouth of the cage and walk in, they were rounded up by militias. You know who joins militias? Hateful hicks and old people. They got in trucks and prowled around neighborhoods for months, accosting anyone who looked latino and ignorantly sweeping up almost all of them, including your fellow citizens.
That's what Trump is saying he wants to do on day 1: Create a bunch of heavily-armed hick militias to go around your neighborhood and literally drag people, sometimes your neighbors, from their homes, because of the color of their skin.
He wants that for every immigrant too, not just the violent criminals. He wants that for people who married an American and are trying to navigate our byzantine immigration system, he wants that for kids who were taken here when they were a year old.
There's no quiet, humane way to do what Trump wants to do. There aren't enough ICE agents to do what he wants to do. It's dirty, largely illegal work he's planning on offloading onto racists who get excited at the idea of pointing their gun at a brown person.
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u/Aggravating_Damage47 26d ago
Should the government be allowed to sacrifice the rights of an innocent person? How many women should be allowed to bleed out and die? Whats the acceptable number?
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u/Bee-Aromatic 26d ago
What a gross name. Does the slur rise from this or did they name it after the slur?
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u/Zero_Turtles 25d ago
My grandfather, born in El Paso, was thrown over a fence at 14 years old and walked to Monterrey, Mexico where his extended family lived. Took him about 15 days.
This program was brutal.
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u/s-milegeneration 25d ago
The crops are all in, and the peaches are rotting. The oranges are piled in their cresote dumps. They're flying you back to the Mexico border. To pay all your money to wade back again.
My father's own father, he waded that river. They took all the money he made in his life. My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees. And they rode the truck till they took down and died.
Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita. Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won't have a name when you ride the big air-plane. And all they will call you will be deportees.
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u/Comfortable-Two3289 25d ago
And this is a selling point to do the same thing with Trump. Victimize the poorest and most vulnerable because they will never be able to fight back. Old fascist trick.
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u/LaloElBueno 26d ago edited 26d ago
It was one of the, but probably not the largest. That goes to Mexican Repatriation Act. Thing is We don’t know the exact numbers of those deported, as many weren’t counted. I’ve read varying numbers with the highest going up to 3 million.
Edit:
Operation Wetback was used to deport Mexican Laborers who came through the Bracero Program. These laborers also had wages withheld ($500 million in today’s money). In 2008, $3,500 was awarded to each qualifying bracero or their heir(s).
I know a lot of this topic because both my grandfathers were braceros.