While much attention has been paid to Illegal immigration in the two Trump administrations, this issue is not new. The issue of Illegal Immigration stretches back decades.
As President Eisenhower was contemplating what would become known as Operation Wetback, a significantly flawed mass deportation program in June of 1954, CBS Radio devoted an hour to a groundbreaking, hard-hitting documentary named "The Wetbacks".
Using what was then cutting-edge technology, a bilingual reporter embedded in Mexico journeyed into the U.S. with a suitcase-sized portable tape recorder to explore how far migrants could travel before facing Immigration or Border Patrol forces. Spoiler alert: He made it all the way to Los Angeles unchallenged.
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| An AI-generated image of possible illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande |
The documentary covered not only the scale of the illegal immigration and how the immigration created job shortages and fueled employers' reliance on undocumented labor. The story also touched on fears of Communist infiltration during the cold war - something that continues to this day with a significant number of South American gangs and Middle Eastern criminals.
At the time, the Bracero Program, a guest worker program, was in place where Mexicans could apply to legally work in the US making more money and in better conditions than the illegals, but it was discontinued in 1964 amid growing criticism of the program's exploitative practices, increased mechanization of agriculture, and the rise of the Civil Rights and Farmworker movements.
KELY will rebroadcast this important documentary of the roots of today's immigration crisis that has been ignored for over seven decades by Republicans and Democrats alike on Sunday, July 6 at 5pm on 1230AM and 98.5FM.