How Eisenhower solved illegal
border crossings from Mexico
-- By John Dillin / July 6, 2006
The Christian Science
Monitor.
WASHINGTON
George W. Bush isn't the
first Republican president to face a full-blown immigration crisis on the
US-Mexican border.
Fifty-three years ago, when
newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's
southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million
illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years
for jobs in California, Arizona,
Texas, and
points beyond.
President Eisenhower cut off
this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United
States Border Patrol agents – less than one-tenth of today's force. The
operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.
Although there is little to
no record of this operation in Ike's official papers, one piece of historic
evidence indicates how he felt. In 1951, Ike wrote a letter to Sen. William
Fulbright (D) of Arkansas.
The senator had just proposed that a special commission be created by Congress
to examine unethical conduct by government officials who accepted gifts and
favors in exchange for special treatment of private individuals.
General Eisenhower, who was
gearing up for his run for the presidency, said "Amen" to Senator
Fulbright's proposal. He then quoted a report in The New York Times,
highlighting one paragraph that said: "The rise in illegal border-crossing
by Mexican 'wetbacks' to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has
been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the
way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels
of the Federal Government."
Years later, the late Herbert
Brownell Jr., Eisenhower's first attorney general, said in an interview with
this writer that the president had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration
when he took office.
America "was faced with a breakdown in law enforcement
on a very large scale," Mr. Brownell said. "When I say large scale, I
mean hundreds of thousands were coming in from Mexico [every year] without
restraint."
Although an on-and-off
guest-worker program for Mexicans was operating at the time, farmers and
ranchers in the Southwest had become dependent on an additional low-cost,
docile, illegal labor force of up to 3 million, mostly Mexican, laborers.
According to the Handbook of
Texas Online, published by the University
of Texas at Austin and
the Texas State Historical Association, this illegal workforce had a severe
impact on the wages of ordinary working Americans. The Handbook Online reports
that a study by the President's Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas in 1950
found that cotton growers in the Rio Grande Valley, where most illegal aliens
in Texas worked, paid wages that were "approximately half" the farm
wages paid elsewhere in the state.
Profits from illegal labor
led to the kind of corruption that apparently worried Eisenhower. Joseph White,
a retired 21-year veteran of the Border Patrol, says that in the early 1950s,
some senior US
officials overseeing immigration enforcement "had friends among the
ranchers," and agents "did not dare" arrest their illegal
workers.
Walt Edwards, who joined the
Border Patrol in 1951, tells a similar story. He says: "When we caught
illegal aliens on farms and ranches, the farmer or rancher would often call and
complain [to officials in El Paso].
And depending on how politically connected they were, there would be political
intervention. That is how we got into this mess we are in now."
Bill Chambers, who worked for
a combined 33 years for the Border Patrol and the then-called US Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS), says politically powerful people are still
fueling the flow of illegals.
During the 1950s, however,
this "Good Old Boy" system changed under Eisenhower – if only for
about 10 years.
In 1954, Ike appointed
retired Gen. Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing, a former West
Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS
commissioner.
Influential politicians,
including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas
and Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada,
favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement,
Brownell said. But General Swing's close connections to the president shielded
him – and the Border Patrol – from meddling by powerful political and corporate
interests.
One of Swing's first decisive
acts was to transfer certain entrenched immigration officials out of the border
area to other regions of the country where their political connections with
people such as Senator Johnson would have no effect.
Then on June 17, 1954, what
was called "Operation Wetback" began. Because political resistance
was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there.
Some 750 agents swept northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000
apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the
two states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country.
By mid-July, the crackdown
extended northward into Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, and
eastward to Texas.
By September, 80,000 had been
taken into custody in Texas, and an estimated
500,000 to 700,000 illegals had left the Lone Star State voluntarily.
Unlike today, Mexicans caught
in the roundup were not simply released at the border, where they could easily
reenter the US.
To discourage their return, Swing arranged for buses and trains to take many
aliens deep within Mexico
before being set free.
Tens of thousands more were
put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships
ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Vera Cruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles south.
The sea voyage was "a
rough trip, and they did not like it," says Don Coppock, who worked his
way up from Border Patrolman in 1941 to eventually head the Border Patrol from
1960 to 1973.
Mr. Coppock says he
"cannot understand why [President] Bush let [today's] problem get away
from him as it has. I guess it was his compassionate conservatism, and trying
to please [Mexican President] Vincente Fox."
There are now said to be 12
million to 20 million illegal aliens in the US. Of the Mexicans who live here,
an estimated 85 percent are here illegally.
Border Patrol vets offer tips
on curbing illegal immigration
One day in 1954, Border
Patrol agent Walt Edwards picked up a newspaper in Big Spring, Texas,
and saw some startling news. The government was launching an all-out drive to
oust illegal aliens from the United
States.
The orders came straight from
the top, where the new president, Dwight Eisenhower, had put a former West Point classmate, Gen. Joseph Swing, in charge of
immigration enforcement.
General Swing's fast-moving
campaign soon secured America's
borders – an accomplishment no other president has since equaled. Illegal
migration had dropped 95 percent by the late 1950s.
Several retired Border Patrol
agents who took part in the 1950s effort, including Mr. Edwards, say much of
what Swing did could be repeated today.
"Some say we cannot send
12 million illegals now in the United
States back where they came from. Of course
we can!" Edwards says.
Donald Coppock, who headed
the Patrol from 1960 to 1973, says that if Swing and Ike were still running
immigration enforcement, "they'd be on top of this in a minute."
William Chambers, another
'50s veteran, agrees. "They could do a pretty good job" sealing the
border.
Edwards says: "When we
start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to
replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce."
While Congress debates
building a fence on the border, these veterans say other actions should have
higher priority.
1. End the current practice
of taking captured Mexican aliens to the border and releasing them. Instead,
deport them deep into Mexico,
where return to the US
would be more costly.
2. Crack down hard on
employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the aliens won't come.
3. End "catch and
release" for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for illegal migrants not
from Mexico
to be set free after their arrest if they promise to appear later before a
judge. Few show up.
The Patrol veterans say
enforcement could also be aided by a legalized guest- worker program that
permits Mexicans to register in their country for temporary jobs in the US.
Eisenhower's team ran such a program. It permitted up to 400,000 Mexicans a
year to enter the US
for various agriculture jobs that lasted for 12 to 52 weeks.
