Operation Wetback

0:12 Hi, everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is Estorias Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history. Sometimes it's horrible and deals with tibe topics like racism, corruption, and genocide. But more than that, it's also about resistance, power and community. Okay, and uh, Christina, what are we talking about today? Well, Carmen, since winning the election is okay? Sorry, go ahead, let me do my intro that I wrote up and I like it and wow, I'm excited to hear it. Okay, I'm gonna start before your scream. Don't scream again. Okay, I'm not gonna scream. Since winning the election, Trump is back in the headlines saying a lot of things like always today. At the time recording November eighteen, twenty twenty four, one headline stood out to me. Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency in order to enact a program of mass deportations using the military. And that's nothing new for him. Yeah. During the last round of campaigns for him, which was twenty sixteen or twenty twenty, which I guess I blocked from my memory. That do you block? Twenty twenty, there was three campaigns pretential campaigns.

1:33 Yeah from this man. Yep. Three. My brain hurts, all right, So probably both times. I feel like he often talked about how much he loved Operation went Back. I don't remember that at all. You don't remember him saying how much he loved Operation went Back? Okay, I don't. I don't remember which round twenty sixteen or twenty twenty that this direct quote comes from, but he said, and it was during it must have been the twenty sixteen debate, I think. But he said the following Dwight Eisenhower, good president, great president. People liked him. I like ike, right the expression I like ike. Moved a million half illegal immigrants out of this country. Moved them just beyond the border.

2:22 They came back. Moved them again beyond the border. They came back. They didn't like it, moved way south. They never came back. I'm sorry, fucking talk, sorry, try to finish. It's fucking okay, Okay, they never came back. Dwight Eisenhower, you don't get nicer, you don't get friendlier. They moved a million half people out. We have no choice. End quote. That's the stupid, sucking way you can talk. And I can't talk like Kevin from the office. Shorter sentences save time. Yep, that's how he talks. I can't believe we're being subjected to this again, like like this is like non coherent babbel.

3:10 It's where you kind of understand it after reading it again and you're like, okay, not complete sentences, but apparently it speaks to millions of dumb gitches. Literally literally hurt my brain when I read that. Anyway, the point of this, oh right, there was a point to this. Yes, that number half a million half people, which he that number is not even like right, but whatever, Oh like he didn't say that a million and a half people, but he's keeps saying a million half people, not like one point five million or whatever. Okay, one point five million people. That number is a lie. The operation went back to not deport one point five million people a lie? Really, some numbers put it at three hundred thousand. But what was a operation wetback? That is today's topic. And yeah, I had something else in mind, half written already, and then I saw the headline when I woke up, and we were like, nope, it's finally time to do an episode on Operation Wetback. It's been on the list for forever and we've talked about it, but yeah, that is the episode today, Operation went Back. And yes, that was the name because people, I mean, you know, some people today still use the term, but back then it was widely used. Before we get into Operation Wetback. There is some context that we need a lot that we've already discussed over several episodes, like La Migra, Oh my god,

4:45 my brain is not working. I can tell I didn't take my booster meds. Oh I just took mine. You better take a bandage of your meds now, because soon you're going to be in a concentration camp with everyone else that takes adhd yes. According to RFK, he's going to put every who takes well, he's said adderall, and I don't. You don't take generall. No, I take metal venedades. So okay, well maybe no, who's kidding? Are we kidding? Anyway? Yeah? I got to use them now. Well, like okay, so where even was I? Oh? Yeah? In La Grand matcha episode, we talked a little bit more about immigration laws, the history of like immigration. Over several episodes we've done, you know, little bits of Mexican migration to the US, and we've you know, we've talked about all of that. Yeah, like in the placid Vea episode where we talked about the Placida raid. There were mass deportations of Mexicans during the Great Depression. Americans were looking for someone to blame for the lack of work, money, food, everything, because he's this sucks for everyone, and instead of uniting like as a country, they were like, those people are not us, they are causing all this. Deport them. Well it's like always yeah, I'm looking for escape to go, and more often than not it's immigrants. Yeah, one type of immigrant. Yeah yeah, sorry, brown immigrants. Yes, yes, So Mexicans were you know, first Mexicans were among the first to be fired as soon

6:16 as the Wall Street crash of nineteen twenty nine happened. Like all Mexicans were fired basically, and a lot voluntarily returned to Mexico like on their own, but the ones that didn't were deported. So during the Great Depression, the numbers it's hard to find exact numbers, but the US according to US numbers, like US government numbers, over the years, they've said eighty two hundred to one point eight million. Mexico said two million were deported or left on their own. They joined those two numbers to count them as all deported, which included Mexican American citizens too, because of course there's you know, the children of my Mexican immigrants moor here, right, they're going to go with their families, right, But also just Mexican citizens in general were rounded up too, like they weren't safe because they looked Mexican, so they were also deported. So by nineteen thirty four, one third of all Mexicans and the United States had been deported, which is a lot. Yeah, I made a surprise, fase, yes you did. It's estimated that sixty percent of those were US born citizens. Entire barrios in La disappeared during this time.

7:36 Oh my god. You know. But then in a few years, with all the deported Mexicans and then World War two, the US was in need of labor, and so the Mexican and American governments developed the Rossetto program, which is the following and we've said this before, but the Mexican Farm Labor Program was the executive order that established the Rossetto program in nineteen forty two. This was an agreement beare when the US and Mexico which allowed Mexican men to work legally in the US under short term labor contracts, but undocumented immigrants were still entering the US and being hired by American workers. Some states, like California became dependent on the Bassetto program and on doing it right using the Bataceto program workers who are legally in the US, But other places like Texas shocker there, refused to participate in the Batacetto program because they didn't want to adhere to the rules and wages established by the program, and they wanted to pay them even less and exploit undocumented workers, so they continued to hire them, and this was essentially like going over the program that's supposed to benefit benefit both countries, the US Mexico. Mexico was not happy. They needed workers to come back, which is what the Basseto program was doing. Contract over returned to Mexico, come back for season work. Most people did until all the undocumented workers that were being hired in Texas this required them

9:07 to stay. It wasn't seasonal work anymore, so now they were staying, they weren't returning to Mexico and Mexico needed workers too, so they pressured the US to tighten immigration laws and border security. This is actually when the border wall was made and a border patrol presence was increased, and there were smaller rounds of deportations that led up to operation went back to try and get Textan farmers to comply with the Verasclo program. So they'd go and like, you know, take all their undocumented workers, and like you have to use the rasseto program. You can't use these workers. They're being deported. And these depretations they happened with the help of the Mexican government. They had to like they wanted them back in Mexico too. The problem with these deportations is that then workers simply re entered the US, so then Mexico and the US. And when I say that, it's the government's right of these two countries in case people are not clear. But they worked together to make a plan that would deport Mexicans deeper into Mexico using trains built in planes, but it hadn't really been fully implemented.

10:13 The plan was there that way Mexicans wouldn't return. Okay. In the middle of all this planning, Texan farmers ruined it again, of course they did. When Border patrol arrived to deport their undocumented workers, they fought back with guns. Oh my god, these are my workers. Oh my god. Only it's like so ironic now that they were like and it wasn't in the interest of the workers, it was in their own interests. But they're they're fighting deportations. So yeah, in response to that, the Mexican government sent their troops to the Mexican side of the border. When they did that, this is nineteen fifty three, now, when they did that, the predecessor to Operation Went Back was thought up in response to this. So Harlan Carter just you know, sounds like an evil name, but no, I don't recognize it. Yeah, Harlan Carter, the head of Border Patrol, went to President Eisenhower and proposed a plan to use the US military to round up and topport undocumented Mexicans.

11:30 He called it Operation cloud Burst. But eisen Howard rejected the plan because there was this doctrine that I forgot to write down the name of. But this thing that made it so the US military could not be used for domestic law indrustments. Okay, I've heard of that it's still the thing today. This is the National Guard exists. And also more on Harlan Carter because he fucking sucks. He's actually there's a two or three part episode on Behind the Bastards. Oh really about him. Yeah, I'm gonna check that out. It's like, I don't remember what they titled it, but yeah, he's he's the guy who created Bordatrol. Basically, oh my god, anyone, yeah, who could do that, red, no matter what person. But yeah, he's actually a convicted murderer.

12:15 I'm shocked. In nineteen thirty one, when he was a mere seventeen years old, he killed Ramon Gaciano, a Mexican American teen, where he lived in La Lo, Texas, and he he was upset that Ramon and his Mexican friends were hanging out in front of his house. Oh my god, and so he hunted them down, found them, aimed the shotgun at Ramon's chest and pulled the trigger. Wow. So he like deliberately m hm wow, straight up killer. Wow. And jury convicted him of the killing. Oh good, they found him guilty, but then it was overturned because there was some procedural like technical thing that went wrong but he literally was found guilty, Like yeah, but uh yeah, no repercussions for any of this, you know, and clearly his Was it a coincidence that this was a Mexican American teen? I don't. I don't know, not at all, you know. Yeah, so, you know, he went on to have a nice career. He went to join the US Border Patrol, and then I don't, I can't remember like his full story. I didn't write it down for this episode.

13:33 So somehow he becomes like the head of the Border Patrol at some point. Okay, but the behind the Bastard's episodes does go to get into that deep into it. Yeah, okay, so yeah, he's the one who proposed Operation cloud Lift. And so in the middle of all this tension that was going on, Mexico took back their agreement on the Vasado program. They're like no more. This is when Eisenhower changed Operation cloud Burst into Operation where Back and said we're doing this. He appointed Army General Joseph May Swing as a Commissioner of the i S, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and then together General Swing and Harlan Carter carried out Operation Wetback, only using Border Patrol instead of the military, so now it was legal. So on June ninth, nineteen fifty four, I S Commissioner Swing announced the commencement of Operation Wetback. The first phase of the operation began in California and Arizona, and really more than a mass deportation campaign, it was also a terror campaign. It was a show to put fear into like Mexicans in the country, like the government showing like, hey, this is what we can do, so you should be scared. Yeah. And also this show of THEIRS was super exaggerated. They wanted it to look like a straight up war strategy, like the way it was di Eyes. It was like basically a basically a military operation using border patrol. Wow, they used well,

15:08 I'll mention this in a bit so. Phase one was called Operation bus Lift. It took place in Arizona and California. Greyhound buses leaving El Centro, California to Nogales, Arizona were full of deportees. Twenty eight buses with a total of one thousand and eight undocumented migrants. They were taken to Arizona and then from there into deep like the desert, like twenty ish miles past the border to make it harder for them to come back right. And then a week after this it was Phase two. This was called Operation Sweeps. So here border patrol rated farms to find undocumented workers with the help of local police, and here four thousand, four hundred and three were rounded up in just that first week. But these sweeps continued throughout the Central Valley and the rest of California and Arizona. Then on July third, the first Mobile Task Force was set up in McAllen, Texas, and here they set up roadblock inspections to stop undocumented migrants who were heading north on trains, so they were raiding trains basically. And these initial phases scared a lot who would end up voluntarily returning to Mexico on their own. I've read different numbers. Some said sixty thousand to half a million left on their own before being deported, But they're being counted in that total one point five million that Trump keeps spouting. But technically they weren't deported. So by September third, nineteen fifty four,

16:42 deportations by c began. So the SS Emancipation and the SS Vera Cruz would sail two thousand miles from Port Isabel, Texas to Vera Cruz, Mexico, and they did this twenty six times. Wow. This trip, both ships transported around eight hundred to one thousand undocumented workers or immigrants to per voyage. And then on September eighteenth, they started doing airlifts from the Midwest. So now you know, places like Chicago, Saint Louis, Kansas City were rounding up migrants and then putting them on planes, then from there going to Brownsville, Texas, and then after that they were put on ships to Vera Cruz.

17:30 And the conditions of these ships were later compared to ships carrying enslaved Africans. Oh my god, Camo was called Emancipation. You know, it's probably the same ship. That'd be the same I said, that's what it was called. No, it is called that. I'm saying, it's probably like a ship that was used back then. Obviously it wasn't. Yeah, that would be so, but like what a fucking name, right, Like, yeah, not cool. A lot of people call these ships hell ships. They were severely overcrowded. At least five deportees drowned because of the conditions and the overcrowdedness of the ships, and then just more on like the rounding of the deportees.

18:16 Border patrol agents would go into Mexican neighborhoods, often in the middle of the night. Sometimes they would drive around in circles for hours to make it seem like there were more of them than there actually were, like all the cars don't stop coming, but it's just the same card Oh my god. Yeah. Also that's just like to scare them more on purpose. Yeah, they would also go into Mexican businesses sometimes they you know, they just grabbed whoever looked Mexican and then demanded identification from Mexican looking people. And like you know, back then, nobody carried their documentation, so if they can prove that they were born here, they were just taken. So that's how a lot of citizens ended up being deported as well, on top of the children of immigrants. So yeah, anyone Mexican looking, which is racist of course, of course, and we don't need to say it, but we do need to say it, right, like apparently we do. Yeah, Like this reminds me of you know, the hr Yeah that we all tried to stop and now there's like versions of it across different states.

19:26 But you know, there was a oh a different law in Arizona that they were trying to pass to stop all people suspected of being undocumented. But really it was like anyone that looked Mexican. Yeah. Yeah, and now that's like all that kind of stuff is coming back. That's called racial profiling. Yeah, and it is racist also, wow, against the law. Yeah, but that's what they were doing back then, just oh you look Mexican, let's you know, deport you. There were no hearings, no trials, which is a right, but not a right for and documented people. Yeah. They were simply just put on the back of trucks buses and then just deported. Uh. They weren't even allowed to like contact their families. So many times they didn't even know, like families of them didn't didn't know that they were taken, like they just disappeared. And since deeper tees were taken deeper into Mexico, uh, often not where they were originally from, they didn't know how to get to.

20:29 They didn't know where they were. Like my god, Now imagine that for like people born in the US, like drop me in the middle of Mexico and I'm like what the fuck? Oh my god, I would someone take music. Well, I got up, mom, Mom take me. How do I get to my Wita's house? Historian Meda Cruz. Oh yeah, god, oh my god, I can't imagine. You imagine how like and back then like no, like now, I don't know. If you had your phone, you could GPS or whatever, but with probably nothing, none of their belongings. Yeah, nothing, no map, no money, I don't know. Yeah, it's seriously messed up. And like some people were lucky to be deported into cities, like the people that were left in Veracruz.

21:15 They were taken to a port where there's a city, and there was a little bit of help from the Mexican government who supposedly supposedly they said, we're going to help all the deportees. They didn't wow, And like I said, they weren't able to grather belongings. They didn't have anything on them, like nothing when they were deported to Mexico. And the worst was the ones that were deported to the middle of the desert with nothing, not even food or water. Wow, that's like a death sentence. It literally was a death sentence. You know. They were left in the middle of the desert in one hundred and twelve degree weather. Eighty eight Mexicans died in July nineteen fifty five due to this. Wow. And it would have been more if the Red Cross hadn't intervened, which is yeah, literally death sentence, like a death march. That's what they're doing, making these people get off the bus and they're like taking them to their deaths. Literally. Yeah. There's reports of like reporters tried to they would get on these buses to try and like document all this and they couldn't like keep up with the deportees like documenting their journey because it was too difficult. Wow. And their asses are reporters, they have their things with them, they can leave, go back, you know. But that's how hard it was. Wow. So yeah, eighty eight died, and yeah, they were apprehended without giving a chance to contact their family members and also to

22:48 accommodate all the rounding up of people, makeshift concentration camps created in public parks. Sounds familiar, right, like Alesioned Park in La Wow. Yeah, that was a concentration camp. Up to a thousand people were held at these. That's a lot. Yes, I didn't know that I've heard because we've talked a little bit about Operation New went back, but I didn't know about concentration camps. Like I'm not shocked, but I'm just like, I can't believe I didn't know this. And of course, right, because all these people need to be held somewhere. Yeah, and now the system in place now didn't exist back then detention centers, which are the same thing concentration. Yeah. Yeah, so at these camps, they migrants reported being beaten and mistreated. No surprise there, no, So all of this was like a show to American people.

23:53 Reporters like followed all the deporties. It was like like a what do they call it? Media circus? Oh? Okay, yeah? Sorry. Also, I'm dying right now. I don't know. I just sat down and I'm like I was dying too because of mymd's wearing. Now, okay, because I'm the one doing all the talking, I feel alive again, right, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, so yeah, all of this was like a show to the American people. Here are some of the headlines by LA Times, July twelve, nineteen fifty four. Wetbacks Detention Center camp slated Ilesian Park will be focal point in Alien roundup June eighteen, nineteen fifty four, Five hundred and nat by La wetback raiders two hundred to take part in the raid June nineteen, nineteen fifty four, one two hundred and fifty nine more wetbacks deported in a single day. Yesterday's returnees at Nogales make up biggest number in current crackdown. June twenty, nineteen fifty four wet bags heard it at Nogales Camp one thousand, one hundred eighty seven wait and blistering for last leg of journey home.

25:02 They loved the world went back. Yeah an alien, Yes, yes. Many celebrated the deportations, of course, including Mexican Americans. If I had to hear about these goddamn fools one more fucking time, I'm gonna square up. I'm gonna find the guys on the street and I'm gonna square up because I'm so tired of this. Yeah. So that's not our own hand they of course. But now there's like a leopard ate my face moment coming. Wow. So among the Mexican Americans that they support the deportations, they were largely veterans, no surprise, dumb men, so influential Latino organizations like the League of United Latin American Citizens and the American gi Forum supported tough immigration policy that the US was instituting.

26:02 But as the raids continued and now citizens were also being deported, then they were like, oh, maybe it isn't Maybe it is a problem. Oh hold on, maybe it's not about document document status or immigration status. Maybe it's actually a racist act and based on racism and in aphobia, not on legal immigrations, you know what I mean, Like, yes, duh, and history, history tells us what happens, right, and so yeah, I'll just leave it at that. Yeah. So they finally began to realize, you know, it was a problem. So historian David Gutierrez wrote the following in his book Walls and Mirrors. Not even the most politically conservative Mexican American organizations could ignore the fact that immigration drag nets so roundups not only were affecting illegal aliens, but also were devastating to Mexican American families, disrupting businesses in Mexican neighborhoods and fanning inter ethnic animosities throughout the border region. By nineteen fifty four, done by nineteen fifty four, Lulax News publication was running more sympathetic stories as before, so they described the status of those arriving in Mexico as broken man with strength spent and exhausted by the senseless struggles

27:35 of a life evolving around slavish, ill paid labor and the degradation degradation of jail and prison cells. So like now they're finally seeing them. Oh wow, when the father of a Mexican American child is deported, it affects the whole family. Who would have thought or affects Oh, that's the uncle of someone. Oll Oh my uncle. I'm a veteran and I'm my uncle, like you know, Like it wasn't until it started affecting them. And more often than not, families are like mixed status. So of course it affects citizens. And I mean, if it only even if it didn't affect only citizens, like you should care anyway, Maybe they should have cared before. At least they changed their standards.

28:18 That's true. It's important people do and can change their minds, and that's a good thing. Yeah, okay, and now I'm gonna I found this like last minute. It's from the Wall Street Journal and it was paywal but apparently my library gives me subscriptions to the Oh, to a bunch of like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. If I log in through the library, I can access the WOW like if I had a subscription, it has a bunch of magazines. But I've never like you should look into see newspapers because it comes in handy. So Victor Ochoa was seven years old when a stranger in a wide brimmed hat came to his house and told his parents they had three days to leave the US.

29:05 How old does he he was? Seven? Oh, my gosh, okay. The man had a pistol underneath his trench coat, and he warned that federal immigration authorities would be back to make sure that they were gone. So that night he remembers hearing his mother's whales echoing through their whole house while they had to leave or make plans to leave La East La and return to Mexico. He was born in the US. He remembers that day in nineteen fifty five, like still seventy years later. This was published in September and of September, So seventy years later, he still remembers the details of the day they had to leave, and the twelve times that followed. His parents had arrived illegally a decade before he was born. Oh my god, sorry, a decade before that day they were deported. So ten years they had been in the country. They worked in factories, they drove trucks, they cleaned. How they raised him and his sister to speak only English. I know, I know, those are the times, but that does not you know, like assimilation, It just it never works, you know. Yeah, and now they're being deported and at least he was seven, so you know, being deported back at that age, he could pick up the language quicker back in Mexico, but yeah, he didn't speak Spanish, and now he's forced to go back to the country that he didn't know the language of. Yeah, because his parents arrived here and wanted him to assimilate.

30:34 And also, you know, this is the time when students were being hit for speaking Spanish. So she had before, you know, when the children were little, she their mom had always told them to try and hide their Mexican identity in case of like deportation, because they were lighter skinned Mexicans. So she would tell them to say they were from Russia to see if that like saved them. And he remembers his mom being worried all the time, and he said, I think it made her sick. And as a boy, he decided he wouldn't let these type like immigration worry and let fear take over his life. But now, and this is from the article, these days, with the threat of another Massy pretation looming, he worries more than ever about his family and many others who might be jeopardized. When was he interviewed or oh September, Oh, this is year. Oh my god, he said, I'm kind of becoming like my mom. Oh. And then he said, last year, at a family reunion, he learned for the first time that some of his relatives here in the US were Trump supporters. Dude, so he joined the club. Yeah, he was at a family reunion, right like a party, and he brought out his binder of art that advocated for migrants. Because also he has done me girls at Chicano Park. No way, I probably saw some of them. Yeah,

32:04 I forgot what year, nineteen ninety nine or something like that. He moved back to the US and he went to San Diego, and yeah, he has done work at Chicano Park, and so he was showing his family members this art that advocates for migrants, and some of his family younger family members scoffed at his art. Oh, said supporters, And he was like, what a bunch of assholes? What? And they excuse me? Yeah, you said, I through. Yeah, do they like? Do they do? They right? Like? My god? He was an American citizen deported back to Mexico, and they told him that they supported Trump because he would do more to lower their Texas If I hear that again, also one more time, like you don't even you're not even under you know, you don't make enough money to worry about this. Come on. Yeah, and he said the following, I can't believe that these are second generation Mexicans siding with Trump. Yeah, if it's happening with my family, I'm sure it's happening all over. Mm hmm. You see, Senor, it is and it's depressing. But like he literally went through deportation and these people to his face, his own family, to his face, Yeah, said this to him. I was floored, and that's why I wanted to include it. Wow. This is another account. In the spring of nineteen fifty four, alro Ra Sandoval was home with six of her children in southern Texas when authorities knocked on her door. They

33:36 asked for proof that she had permission to live in the US. She was actually married to an American, but she hadn't filed like paperwork to gain permanent residency. And I think it's just one of one of those things you're like, i'll do leader, I'll do leaders. Yeah, So officers took her into custody and let her bring the youngest child because that baby was being breastfed the old This eight year old was left on her own to watch the rest of the kids until their dad returned home. There was no way of notifying, oh my god, the husband. And her husband was a farmhand who worked alongside Mexican migrants, but again he was American. Days after the whole family left to Tijuana to like go and find her and be reunited with her. And over the several next several years, one of the kids remembers what's his name, Jack Sanchez.

34:32 He remembers struggling with being in a new country and a new language. He was bullied and called gringo because he didn't, of course he was what happens, It is what happens, Like yeah he was, he would be bullied and call the some racist slurter, and then over there it has gone American. Yeah, and that's why sometimes I would not Now I think now I'm like a little more okay with this kind of belief. But like a few years ago, I hated like the Nevakini that, yeah, I'm like this is so dumb, Like I think for me, it's true, it just overused, Like yeah, at this point, it's like I don't think it should be a relation revelation to anyone, like yeah, you know, like it's not Yeah, you should already know this. Yeah, yeah, you know what I know. Okay, when TikTok, when I started getting on TikTok, I see videos of like these emotional videos with like an image and then a quote saying like oh my god, I've realized like I'm not from here order And it's like you're you're realizing that now, how old are you?

35:32 And it's like I'm thirty year old. On TikTok, I'm like, come on, yeah, you should realize this when you watch Selena the movie, But even before that, you should have realized it on your first trip to Mexico. Yeah yeah, or the first party when your theos make fun of you for never for something yeah something. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, he was called gettingo a local children made fun of his broken Spanish. The tapwater made him sick for months because he wasn't used to it. He actually returned at fourteen in the US with other families because he was born yeah, you know, but and also he's actually he grew up to be an immigration attorney, attorney and learned that I can't say that attorney. Yeah, but like it's difficult, like it's you're splitting up families, extended families, sometimes immediate families.

36:27 But also these children that like there lie their lives are being uprooted because of the year that this all happened in they were forced one way or another to not learn Spanish and now they're back in Mexico where they don't know. You know, it's it's fucked up. And now you have literal children of immigrants or immigrants themselves advocating for Trump. Yeah, it's ridiculous, honestly, absolutely so. So overall the official number was like a million quote unquote returns, so deportations. Although this a lot of people returned and were deported again, so those were counted again. And also all the people that fled on their own were counted in this number. But again this number is probably exaggerated, and like really it was probably half of that, but it's still a lot, right. The total number of sweeps fell through the years until like it just very like much declined in nineteen sixty two. And then despite the decline in like, the numbers of people being deported a board patrol doubled find nineteen sixty two. Now they're like a whole army, right, yeah. And also in nineteen sixty two they were given an additional plane to use, and around this time, like funding for the program began to rn dry. It cost more money to do all this

37:58 than to just leave the Mexican here. Side note of course, y I, but the government called Operation went Back a success instead of the border had been secured. But we all know that it wasn't because our parents are here, right. Immigration didn't stop, and it has not supped, and it won't. And you know what, I saw a tweet the other day that was like, yeah, I'm pro immigrant, let them all in. I don't give a fuck or something, and it's like me, yeah, let them all in. Same. Close the border, shut down, oh sorry, open the border, destroy the border so that there's no more border. That's what I meant. Yes, not close it close in the sense of, like stop militarizing it and just let everyone in. That's what's right, right, right. People used to go back and forth, you know. Oh yeah, I mean our grandpa made a trip here, our grandma made a trip. Yeah, it went back yep. So yeah, as we know, immigrations did not stop.

39:04 So and was it really a success? No? No, no. In two thousand and six, congressional representatives in La Soliz and Luis Gutierres introduced a bill calling for a commission to study the Mexican reprayteation Oh my god, patriation. Yes, thank you, yeah, and called for an apology, and the state of California did apologize for passing the or Sorry. They apologized in two thousand and five by passing the Apology Act for the nineteen thirties Mexican Repra Creation Program, which officially recognized the unconstitutional removal and coerce immigration of United States citizens and legal residents of Mexican descent, and they apologized to residents of California for the fundamental violations of their basic civil liberties and constitutional rights Committe during the period of a legal depersation and coerce immigration official words, but no reparations were ever given to the victims. Was good.

40:09 The La County also showed an apology in twenty twelve and they installed the memorial at the site of one of the first citi's immigration raids, which we have covered, the Placita Olvera raid. And I saw the memorial. It's beautiful, Mammy and I sat there reading the names and cried while my children tried to run off and they ruined that moment because they had to go chase them. Of course. Yeah, he came crying like you wanted to. No, we couldn't have the emotional, real emotional reaction to be in there. But it is a yeah. You get a type of feeling there, like we should go again. It's in front of the Union station, right, I think there was a train around there. It was in front of a church.

40:52 Oh yeah, yes, yeah, there was the station and a train and then the whole yeah street, and then you walk through Pera you turn and then that's where the church and the memorial are at. I was there last year for Bestami Mucho. We took the shuttle from Union Station to the Dodger Stadium, but you know, we were in the rush and you're like trying to get there, and so I didn't get to like see it. But another one of our friends was talking about it and she's like, oh, yeah, my mom, I don't know who took us there. And I was like, what the hell is this? It's like not even cool. And I was like, shut I loved it. We were walking through it, we were like, the only thing is that we thought it was bigger. Yeah, but it is a small actually, I think that's what she was saying. She was like, it's smaller than I thought. Yeah, that's what Mammy said too, and I did. I was like, you're right, I did think it was bigger too, but it is. It's cute. Unfortunately, there's a lot of like you know, businesses that are like not open, yeah, because it's so expensive. And we talked about it in the episode. Yeah, but the memorial it's a for sure worth trip to look at. But yeah, and then there's still no apology for Operation Wetback. As far as I know, I couldn't find one for any information on it. Also, the Mexican reprey. Why can't I say this word? I don't know what's wrong with you?

42:14 Right now? Patriation Act and Operation Wetback are hardly taught in US schools today. I know I didn't learn the only reason I learned about the Repatriation Act. First of all, we after what third grade, we went to charge the schools, and I want to say, I can't remember what grade I was in that they had Exponanta Rising and I read it and that's when I learned about the Repatriation Act. I think it was the eighth grade. Oh, I thought it was sooner than that. Well anyway, our school, no, my bad, sixth grade. Oh, I don't know. The fifth grade maybe, but I feel like our schools were kind of more like they taught more. It was fifth grade because it was Dolserta. Oh really we were there. I don't even remember where we were. I just I read the book in Jefferson, for sure. But that's when I learned about that, and never about Operation what Yeah. Yeah, And it's something so prevalent right now, it really is.

43:09 And that's literally what Asperanza Rising. I think we talked. What episode did we talk about it in? Well Wes the Repatriation Act in the episode. Also there was another episode we did sort of about that. Yeah, oh the school, yes, discrimination once because it was around that same time, and that's why they were being discriminated against and being sent to segregated schools was during this time also, Yes, So we talked about it then. And I feel like you're gonna see something else. Oh, I was gonna say, and we said it already in one of those episodes. But that's what Experanza Rising is about, and that she ends up back in you know, they lose everything they go, they end up deported during the Great Depression, right yeah, yeah, yeah, and so they used to be rich and now she's poor and they'll make fun of her in Mexico. Yeah.

44:02 And yeah, it's a good book. It really does. So, I mean I still I still remember it now from then. Yeah, and this is the only other ones I remember is the box car series, Goosebumps of course, and the Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter. I feel like I read that a little bit later though, but yeah, oh, were you not reading them when I was reading them? Or what? Uh? My great teacher gave me the reason. I feel like I associated with the little olders because I didn't finish the series till later. We were older when when the last one came out, we were seniors or juniors. I don't think so, I don't know me neither. Anyway, it does that matters, None of that matters. The point of this is that it's not taught in school still, and this is why people are dumb. No, no, just kidding, but yeah, purposely, I feel like it's purposely omitted in the sense that in the sense no, but in the sense that no. But really, if it is taught in high school, there's four like paragraphs dedicated to both. And sometimes it's just a Mexican Repatriation Act and not even Operation Wetback. Yeah, but they don't. There's a reason why, Like, you know, let's say Arizona for a while, I don't remember how long ago, but they had they were trying to make it take out Mexican Mexican American studies out of high school education. And I mean all of that is for a reason that they don't want people to

45:34 learn their history. And people walked out of schools, people processed it protested in high numbers to learn Mexican American studies because like it or not, how many Mexican American students are there? And say in the most obviously areywhere, but in the most populated states like California, Arizona, Texas, like we need to these things need to be taught. Maybe if these students learned, maybe if the family members of the person I mentioned his story about being supported during Operation Wetback, maybe if they had learned about how horrible it was and how many Mexicans died in the desert, right, maybe they wouldn't support Trump today, right, And how can how can you be so, I don't know, evil to praise something that killed eighty something people, almost ninety people plus parts many families summer right right? Yeah, So it's like anybody who uh supports that, and then anyone who supports a kind of person that supports that, like, I don't know, there's something wrong with y'all. Yeah, yeah, I'm yeah, that's and that's why I wanted to like talk about this today now because of my Yeah, this is this shit is making headlines again. It's gonna he's going to be a president next starting next year, yeah, so, and it's important. This is like, this is not opinionated, like

47:08 so you know, obviously some of the things we said were like our opinion was certain, this happened. This, Yes, this happened as many people were supported, including citizens. People died, so yeah, it is real, it happened. So just to add that on. But yeah, that is the the end of the episode. All right, we need final thoughts about this? No, I think I shared everything throughout you didn't, okay, yeah, do you have an anything thoughts? No? I just wanted to think every one who has interacted with our social media. We got a few comments on a few of our posts. Yes, that's always fun, and then our Patreon shoutouts. Should we do those now? Yeah? Yeah, we just recorded our second Patreon got our episode where we talked about the instead are sadly still relevant just like today. Yeah, we talked about the quote unquote Latino vote. If anyone wants to give the Patreon membership to someone that you think would like like the Patreon, that would be fun or you know, support the podcast, but like can't you can give like a month or two if you want whatever. Also, if you are thinking about joining Patreon, I mean you have an iPhone. Oh my god, I canna talk an iPhone.

48:34 Don't do it through the Apple Store because they charge more. Just go to the website. Use like you're in your phone browser and go to patreon dot com. Don't use your like what is it the Apple Store? Is that what it's called? I don't know when you get sorry, I'm trying to log on. Oh okay, I think I logged on. Oh cool, Okay, thank you to our Patreon member Mariah, Michelle, Chatta and JG and Doesrey. Yes, thank you so much. And yeah, that's it for this episode.

49:16 I feel it was in the season, but maybe not. Were you gonna say anything else? No? I guess not. Okay, okay, I still have the sends stickers out to I've only sent one to Chatta. I think so well. But yeah, we hope that this was one less Estonia Unknown. Thanks for listening. No, that's the other way around. Hey, we're ranking very well in Norway. That's surprising. Where'd you see that? An email? What the hell? Yeah? It says hello, how's it going? Hope all as well? I hope I have some cool information that might interest you. Your podcast he studies Unknown has good performance in Apple podcast rankings in Norway and it says the worse sixty four in the category of history in Norway. Who is listening in Norway? Also, someone I'm from podstatus I don't know today is that data's provided by podstatus dot com. Oh and Poland we're two forty and Angola we're on seventy seven. Where is Angola? Okay, I knew it. It's in Africa. Oh, good job knowing things. Damn. Oh, I was gonna say before we go. If you want to keep up with the podcast, like if we miss an episode, we will update it on Instagram. We're not on Twitter. We have a Twitter account that I used to use, but since Elan took over, I hardly use it and I'm not logging in anymore now. Oh on Twitter? Yeah, Instagram is the best place to keep up with the podcast, like uh oh today we're not We're not really seeing

50:49 an episode because blah blah blah. That is where you find that information. Also, just pictures of what we talk about are on Instagram. We also use threads quite a bit. Shout out to anyone who found to threads because some posts have been going mini viral, Like you know, two hundred three hundred likes. Pretty cool. Yeah, Threads has been fun for estorias unknown spokitos sometimes, but I'd like to use better for EE story as unknown. I'm considering making a Blue Sky, but I'm like, no, I'm doing too much, you are, I get obsessed too much to keep track of I might yeah, so I might not make one. Then I guess, yeah, you're right, so yeah, just Instagram and then I do make videos about the things we talk about on Esterias known on TikTok for yes, spookyel sticktalk, because I'm not making anyone it is too much. Yeah, so yeah, that's where you can keeping keep up with us. Basically, so what I'm what you're say saying, Yeah, yeah, okay, and other than that, this is the now we're done.

51:48 Now we're done. So yeah, thanks for listening, and we hope that this is one less historiaunknown for you. Yes, my and