This is not the first time the US has dealt with an illegal immigration problem. Only last time it was dealt with in a decidedly swifter and sterner manner. The response, coordinated by President Dwight Eisenhower, resulted in nearly 3 million illegal immigrants being sent home.
During his administration, Eisenhower became the first American president forced to deal with problems stemming from illegal immigration. Only, in Eisenhower s time the politically correct culture of liberal sensitivities had yet to emerge.
There was not much in the way of sympathy for those who had crossed into the country illegally.
Eisenhower told the New York Times exactly what had caused the problem: The rise in illegal border crossing by Mexicans [illegal immigrants] to a current rate of more than 1 million 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.
Ike took quick and decisive action. He used 1,075 Border Patrol Agents to seal the border. In doing so, he achieved a task our government today deems impossible with a force that is 10% larger. Once the border was sealed, Eisenhower went about the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens.
In June of 1954, he appointed retired General Joseph Swing to head Operation Wetback, which sent local and federal officials on sweeps of Mexican neighborhoods looking for illegals.
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