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Hi, everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is
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Estorias Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history.
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Sometimes it's horrible and deals with tibe topics like racism, corruption,
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and genocide. But more than that, it's also about resistance,
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power and community. Okay, and uh, Christina, what are we
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talking about today? Well, Carmen, since winning the election is okay? Sorry,
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go ahead, let me do my intro that I wrote
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up and I like it and wow, I'm excited to
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hear it. Okay, I'm gonna start before your scream. Don't
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scream again. Okay, I'm not gonna scream. Since winning the election,
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Trump is back in the headlines saying a lot of
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things like always today. At the time recording November eighteen,
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twenty twenty four, one headline stood out to me. Donald
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Trump plans to declare a national emergency in order to
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enact a program of mass deportations using the military. And
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that's nothing new for him. Yeah. During the last round
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of campaigns for him, which was twenty sixteen or twenty twenty,
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which I guess I blocked from my memory. That do
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you block? Twenty twenty, there was three campaigns pretential campaigns.
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Yeah from this man. Yep. Three. My brain hurts, all right,
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So probably both times. I feel like he often talked
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about how much he loved Operation went Back. I don't
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remember that at all. You don't remember him saying how
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much he loved Operation went Back? Okay, I don't. I
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don't remember which round twenty sixteen or twenty twenty that
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this direct quote comes from, but he said, and it
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was during it must have been the twenty sixteen debate,
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I think. But he said the following Dwight Eisenhower, good president,
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great president. People liked him. I like ike, right the
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expression I like ike. Moved a million half illegal immigrants
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out of this country. Moved them just beyond the border.
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They came back. Moved them again beyond the border. They
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came back. They didn't like it, moved way south. They
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never came back. I'm sorry, fucking talk, sorry, try to finish.
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It's fucking okay, Okay, they never came back. Dwight Eisenhower,
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you don't get nicer, you don't get friendlier. They moved
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a million half people out. We have no choice. End quote.
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That's the stupid, sucking way you can talk. And I
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can't talk like Kevin from the office. Shorter sentences save time. Yep,
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that's how he talks. I can't believe we're being subjected
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to this again, like like this is like non coherent babbel.
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It's where you kind of understand it after reading it
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again and you're like, okay, not complete sentences, but apparently
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it speaks to millions of dumb gitches. Literally literally hurt
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my brain when I read that. Anyway, the point of this,
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oh right, there was a point to this. Yes, that
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number half a million half people, which he that number
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is not even like right, but whatever, Oh like he
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didn't say that a million and a half people, but
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he's keeps saying a million half people, not like one
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point five million or whatever. Okay, one point five million people.
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That number is a lie. The operation went back to
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not deport one point five million people a lie? Really,
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some numbers put it at three hundred thousand. But what
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was a operation wetback? That is today's topic. And yeah,
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I had something else in mind, half written already, and
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then I saw the headline when I woke up, and
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we were like, nope, it's finally time to do an
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episode on Operation Wetback. It's been on the list for
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forever and we've talked about it, but yeah, that is
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the episode today, Operation went Back. And yes, that was
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the name because people, I mean, you know, some people
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today still use the term, but back then it was
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widely used. Before we get into Operation Wetback. There is
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some context that we need a lot that we've already
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discussed over several episodes, like La Migra, Oh my god,
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my brain is not working. I can tell I didn't
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take my booster meds. Oh I just took mine. You
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better take a bandage of your meds now, because soon
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you're going to be in a concentration camp with everyone
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else that takes adhd yes. According to RFK, he's going
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to put every who takes well, he's said adderall, and
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I don't. You don't take generall. No, I take metal venedades.
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So okay, well maybe no, who's kidding? Are we kidding? Anyway? Yeah?
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I got to use them now. Well, like okay, so
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where even was I? Oh? Yeah? In La Grand matcha episode,
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we talked a little bit more about immigration laws, the
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history of like immigration. Over several episodes we've done, you know,
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little bits of Mexican migration to the US, and we've
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you know, we've talked about all of that. Yeah, like
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in the placid Vea episode where we talked about the
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Placida raid. There were mass deportations of Mexicans during the
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Great Depression. Americans were looking for someone to blame for
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the lack of work, money, food, everything, because he's this
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sucks for everyone, and instead of uniting like as a country,
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they were like, those people are not us, they are
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causing all this. Deport them. Well it's like always yeah,
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I'm looking for escape to go, and more often than
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not it's immigrants. Yeah, one type of immigrant. Yeah yeah, sorry,
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brown immigrants. Yes, yes, So Mexicans were you know, first
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Mexicans were among the first to be fired as soon
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as the Wall Street crash of nineteen twenty nine happened.
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Like all Mexicans were fired basically, and a lot voluntarily
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returned to Mexico like on their own, but the ones
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that didn't were deported. So during the Great Depression, the
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numbers it's hard to find exact numbers, but the US
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according to US numbers, like US government numbers, over the years,
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they've said eighty two hundred to one point eight million.
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Mexico said two million were deported or left on their own.
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They joined those two numbers to count them as all deported,
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which included Mexican American citizens too, because of course there's
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you know, the children of my Mexican immigrants moor here, right,
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they're going to go with their families, right, But also
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just Mexican citizens in general were rounded up too, like
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they weren't safe because they looked Mexican, so they were
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also deported. So by nineteen thirty four, one third of
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all Mexicans and the United States had been deported, which
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is a lot. Yeah, I made a surprise, fase, yes
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you did. It's estimated that sixty percent of those were
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US born citizens. Entire barrios in La disappeared during this time.
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Oh my god. You know. But then in a few years,
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with all the deported Mexicans and then World War two,
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the US was in need of labor, and so the
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Mexican and American governments developed the Rossetto program, which is
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the following and we've said this before, but the Mexican
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Farm Labor Program was the executive order that established the
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Rossetto program in nineteen forty two. This was an agreement
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beare when the US and Mexico which allowed Mexican men
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to work legally in the US under short term labor contracts,
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but undocumented immigrants were still entering the US and being
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hired by American workers. Some states, like California became dependent
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on the Bassetto program and on doing it right using
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the Bataceto program workers who are legally in the US,
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But other places like Texas shocker there, refused to participate
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in the Batacetto program because they didn't want to adhere
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to the rules and wages established by the program, and
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they wanted to pay them even less and exploit undocumented workers,
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so they continued to hire them, and this was essentially
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like going over the program that's supposed to benefit benefit
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both countries, the US Mexico. Mexico was not happy. They
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needed workers to come back, which is what the Basseto
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program was doing. Contract over returned to Mexico, come back
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for season work. Most people did until all the undocumented
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workers that were being hired in Texas this required them
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to stay. It wasn't seasonal work anymore, so now they
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were staying, they weren't returning to Mexico and Mexico needed
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workers too, so they pressured the US to tighten immigration
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laws and border security. This is actually when the border
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wall was made and a border patrol presence was increased,
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and there were smaller rounds of deportations that led up
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to operation went back to try and get Textan farmers
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to comply with the Verasclo program. So they'd go and like,
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you know, take all their undocumented workers, and like you
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have to use the rasseto program. You can't use these workers.
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They're being deported. And these depretations they happened with the
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help of the Mexican government. They had to like they
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wanted them back in Mexico too. The problem with these
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deportations is that then workers simply re entered the US,
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so then Mexico and the US. And when I say that,
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it's the government's right of these two countries in case
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people are not clear. But they worked together to make
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a plan that would deport Mexicans deeper into Mexico using
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trains built in planes, but it hadn't really been fully implemented.
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The plan was there that way Mexicans wouldn't return. Okay.
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In the middle of all this planning, Texan farmers ruined
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it again, of course they did. When Border patrol arrived
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to deport their undocumented workers, they fought back with guns.
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Oh my god, these are my workers. Oh my god.
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Only it's like so ironic now that they were like
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and it wasn't in the interest of the workers, it
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was in their own interests. But they're they're fighting deportations.
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So yeah, in response to that, the Mexican government sent
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their troops to the Mexican side of the border. When
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they did that, this is nineteen fifty three, now, when
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they did that, the predecessor to Operation Went Back was
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thought up in response to this. So Harlan Carter just
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you know, sounds like an evil name, but no, I
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don't recognize it. Yeah, Harlan Carter, the head of Border Patrol,
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went to President Eisenhower and proposed a plan to use
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the US military to round up and topport undocumented Mexicans.
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He called it Operation cloud Burst. But eisen Howard rejected
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the plan because there was this doctrine that I forgot
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to write down the name of. But this thing that
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made it so the US military could not be used
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for domestic law indrustments. Okay, I've heard of that it's
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still the thing today. This is the National Guard exists.
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And also more on Harlan Carter because he fucking sucks.
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He's actually there's a two or three part episode on
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Behind the Bastards. Oh really about him. Yeah, I'm gonna
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check that out. It's like, I don't remember what they
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titled it, but yeah, he's he's the guy who created Bordatrol. Basically,
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oh my god, anyone, yeah, who could do that, red,
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no matter what person. But yeah, he's actually a convicted murderer.
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I'm shocked. In nineteen thirty one, when he was a
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mere seventeen years old, he killed Ramon Gaciano, a Mexican
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American teen, where he lived in La Lo, Texas, and
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he he was upset that Ramon and his Mexican friends
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were hanging out in front of his house. Oh my god,
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and so he hunted them down, found them, aimed the
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shotgun at Ramon's chest and pulled the trigger. Wow. So
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he like deliberately m hm wow, straight up killer. Wow.
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And jury convicted him of the killing. Oh good, they
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found him guilty, but then it was overturned because there
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was some procedural like technical thing that went wrong but
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he literally was found guilty, Like yeah, but uh yeah,
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no repercussions for any of this, you know, and clearly
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his Was it a coincidence that this was a Mexican
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American teen? I don't. I don't know, not at all,
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you know. Yeah, so, you know, he went on to
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have a nice career. He went to join the US
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Border Patrol, and then I don't, I can't remember like
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his full story. I didn't write it down for this episode.
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So somehow he becomes like the head of the Border
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Patrol at some point. Okay, but the behind the Bastard's
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episodes does go to get into that deep into it. Yeah, okay,
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so yeah, he's the one who proposed Operation cloud Lift.
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And so in the middle of all this tension that
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was going on, Mexico took back their agreement on the
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Vasado program. They're like no more. This is when Eisenhower
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changed Operation cloud Burst into Operation where Back and said
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we're doing this. He appointed Army General Joseph May Swing
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as a Commissioner of the i S, the Immigration and
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Naturalization Service, and then together General Swing and Harlan Carter
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carried out Operation Wetback, only using Border Patrol instead of
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the military, so now it was legal. So on June ninth,
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nineteen fifty four, I S Commissioner Swing announced the commencement
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of Operation Wetback. The first phase of the operation began
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in California and Arizona, and really more than a mass
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deportation campaign, it was also a terror campaign. It was
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a show to put fear into like Mexicans in the country,
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like the government showing like, hey, this is what we
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can do, so you should be scared. Yeah. And also
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this show of THEIRS was super exaggerated. They wanted it
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to look like a straight up war strategy, like the
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way it was di Eyes. It was like basically a
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basically a military operation using border patrol. Wow, they used well,
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I'll mention this in a bit so. Phase one was
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called Operation bus Lift. It took place in Arizona and California.
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Greyhound buses leaving El Centro, California to Nogales, Arizona were
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full of deportees. Twenty eight buses with a total of
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one thousand and eight undocumented migrants. They were taken to
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Arizona and then from there into deep like the desert,
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like twenty ish miles past the border to make it
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harder for them to come back right. And then a
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week after this it was Phase two. This was called
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Operation Sweeps. So here border patrol rated farms to find
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undocumented workers with the help of local police, and here
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four thousand, four hundred and three were rounded up in
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just that first week. But these sweeps continued throughout the
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Central Valley and the rest of California and Arizona. Then
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on July third, the first Mobile Task Force was set
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up in McAllen, Texas, and here they set up roadblock
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inspections to stop undocumented migrants who were heading north on trains,