Trump praises Eisenhower’s ‘Operation Wetback’
[su_center_b]
He doesn’t praise it by name, but says it was “very effective.”
In response to a question from CNN’s Jake Tapper about his stated desire to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, Donald Trump suggested that similar policies adopted by the Eisenhower administration were not “shameful” but “very effective.”
…U.S. authorities transported hundreds of thousands of immigrants deep into the heart of Mexico by train and by boat. (“[A] congressional investigation likened one vessel (where a riot took place on board) to an ‘18th century slave ship’ and a ‘penal hell ship,’” according to historian Mae Ngai.) Many died before even making it home.
Trump has repeatedly invoked Operation Wetback—although not, it would seem, by name—as inspiration for his own. “We’re rounding them up in a very humane way, a very nice way,” he said in September. “Dwight Eisenhower. You don’t get nicer, you don’t get friendlier. They moved 1.5 million people out. We have no choice. We. Have. No. Choice,” he said at the GOP debate in November.
[su_center_ad]
[su_facebook]
