On Monday, February 25, 2019, a group of illegal aliens were apprehended by Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents near Yuma, AZ. The Yuma Sector continues to see a large number of Central Americans per day crossing illegally and surrendering to agents. CBP photo by Jerry Glaser.
The illegal immigrant crisis is, as Donald Trump has described it, “The greatest invasion in history.” In The Wall Street Journal, Andrew Restuccia and Michelle Hackman report on Trump’s plan to pursue mass deportations along the lines of what Dwight Eisenhower did during his presidency. They write:
In 1951, before the launch of Eisenhower’s deportation operation, the U.S. government issued a report blaming immigrants in the country illegally for many of the nation’s economic woes.
Citing little evidence, the report accused Mexican laborers of stealing jobs from Americans and bringing death and disease. It described illegal immigration as “an invasion,” a description used in recent years by conservative media outlets and right-leaning politicians.
“The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country,” Trump said during his July speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.
Politicians and newspapers during the Eisenhower era warned of communist subversives slipping across the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has alleged without evidence that droves of prisoners, terrorists and mental patients have been crossing the border, claims repeated by right-leaning media outlets.
Today, most Americans view illegal immigration as one of the nation’s biggest problems, polls show.
At the core of Eisenhower’s effort was a public campaign to widely trumpet the government’s plan. The goal, according to historians, was a public-relations blitz to pressure immigrants in the country illegally to flee rather than risk their families being captured in surprise raids. Twice as many immigrants might have voluntarily left the U.S. than were deported, some historians said.
Trump and his allies, many of whom served in top immigration-policy roles while he was president, have discussed replicating Eisenhower’s tactics, according to people familiar with the matter.
Read more here.
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