In his latest disregard of the Latino community during the fourth Republican debate last Tuesday night, Donald Trump insisted on the need for a deportation plan and used as an example the controversial expulsions of undocumented immigrants that occurred during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower (1953 -1961). That effort, officially called Operation Wetback, was an inhuman and deadly operation that Donald Trump is now using as proof that 11 million undocumented immigrants can be deported.
In 1954, the Border Patrol repatriated hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who had entered the United States without documents. Following the wave of immigrants into the US from the Mexican border, the immigrants were then sent to Mexico in crowded trucks and boats, released in the middle of the Mexican desert and the Gulf of Mexico without food or water. Many died from the heat. The idea was that the farther away from the border they were brought, the less likely to return-and in the Gulf, many immigrants drowned.
The name of the operation was and still is a humiliating generalized term for the undocumented, “the wetback.” Donald Trump has not used the term “wetback” but still glorified the program of deportations we now recognize as ineffective, plagued by abuse and that in the eyes of many historians was a painful and embarrassing chapter in our history.
No doubt Donald Trump’s comments were the greatest insult that the Republican Party has expressed to the Latino community. “We have no choice,” Donald Trump claimed referring to his deportation plan he’d enact if he were to become President of the United States.
Enough Trump! Again and again we heard the insults of Donald Trump, but now this must come to an end.
Friends, we must not forget the insults and humiliations of Donald Trump and the fact that the other Republicans have not confronted him. I urge that we use this opportunity as motivation to continue in our struggle for a better country. Next year, we have another opportunity to exercise our voice using the power of our vote. Now more than ever, it is important we empower our Latino community and we exercise our right to vote in 2016!
The power is in our hands and we cannot allow a man without respect for humanity, using incendiary comments, be elected president of our country. Donald Trump is a dangerous person. He has no compassion or sympathy for the thousands of people who come to this country in search of better opportunities. It is unacceptable and our duty to ensure we all come to the polls in the next election to silence Donald Trump and other Republicans that follow the rhythm, once and for all.
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