1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Steph you missed in history Class from how 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: I'm three Cbe Wilson and I'm Holly fry So. Today, 4 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:21,439 Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think concerns about immigration 5 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: are a recent phenomenon. I mean definitely in the United State, 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: which is where we live and can talk about from experience, 7 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:31,240 Speaker 1: but maybe in other nations too, but definitely in the US, right, 8 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:32,919 Speaker 1: people don't think of this is a thing that's been 9 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:37,960 Speaker 1: around for a long time. Yeah, I think there's a 10 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: prevailing thought that, uh, you know there colonists came and 11 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 1: that was the big immigration thing, and then there was 12 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: this big gap and now we're all arguing and worried 13 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: about it again. Yeah, it's been like the last I 14 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: don't know, thirty or forty years. So in a in away, 15 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: in a way, it definitely is a new concern for 16 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,480 Speaker 1: people because for about a hundred and fifty years after 17 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 1: the nation was founded, there weren't really any immigration laws. Right, 18 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 1: if you could get here, you got to live here. 19 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 1: That was basically how it worked until um, you know, 20 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:22,040 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. So back in the late seventeen hundreds, 21 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: the country didn't really seem to care about about immigration. 22 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: But to look at another way, it is not a 23 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: new concern at all, because the United States started passing 24 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:34,920 Speaker 1: immigration laws and a lot of them were targeted at 25 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 1: immigrants from specific countries in the eighteen sixties. So this 26 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:41,840 Speaker 1: is both a really new idea given the whole history 27 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: of the United States as a nation uh and a 28 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 1: really old one given that it's been around for more 29 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 1: than a hundred and fifty years. So that whole division 30 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: between like legal and illegal immigration is simultaneously new and old. 31 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: And today's story or today's story is part of that 32 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: centuries long story. Because for parts of the twentieth century, 33 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: the United States and Mexico had agreements in place that 34 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,959 Speaker 1: we're allowing and even encouraging Mexican nationals to enter the 35 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:13,880 Speaker 1: United States to do agricultural work and other labor, mostly 36 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:17,880 Speaker 1: in the American Southwest. And one specific program called the 37 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: Brissero program was launched during World War Two to address 38 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 1: a labor shortage um as American men were needed for 39 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:28,800 Speaker 1: the war effort. But an unintended side effect of this 40 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,919 Speaker 1: program that was about legally coming to the United States 41 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: to work was this huge increase in the number of 42 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 1: people who were crossing the border from Mexico illegally, and 43 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 1: these illegal entries reached a point that the government implemented 44 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: another program, which I'm gonna make it clear this is 45 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: not an acceptable word to use today, but it is 46 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,080 Speaker 1: literally what the program was named. It was called Operation 47 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: Wetback to deport Mexican nationals and huge groups. So the 48 00:02:56,639 --> 00:02:59,440 Speaker 1: intertwined stories of these two government programs is what we 49 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,080 Speaker 1: are going to talk about today. And before nineteen ten, 50 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 1: there was simply not a lot of regulation of the 51 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 1: United States border with Mexico. People pretty much crossed back 52 00:03:09,639 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: and forth as they pleased. And as agricultural industry started 53 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:17,080 Speaker 1: to really grow in the Southwest, these industries started to 54 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 1: really rely on this readily available and seasonal workforce that 55 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: was coming in from Mexico in the nineteen twenties. This 56 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: also became true of other industries in the American West 57 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: and Southwest as well, including railroads and mining. But today 58 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:36,880 Speaker 1: we're talking mostly about agriculture, so using Mexican nationals as 59 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: a source of labor basically came with some benefits. Agricultural 60 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: work and a lot of places is highly seasonal and 61 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: for the most part, migrant workers who were US citizens 62 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,000 Speaker 1: were traveling as families. They would spend the year moving 63 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:52,839 Speaker 1: from place to place as a family for the most part, 64 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: spending a lot more time looking for work than actually working, 65 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: and when there was work, it was usually worked that 66 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: the whole family did it, including the children, and an 67 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 1: effort to try to make enough money to last them 68 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: for the rest of the year. So that's not an 69 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: ideal situation in a lot of ways. Mexican workers, on 70 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: the other hand, tended to be young men traveling in 71 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,600 Speaker 1: groups with other young men. A group of young men 72 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: was overall a lot more efficient than a family with children, 73 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: and on the more exploitive side of things, many were 74 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: willing to accept lower wages than what was considered standard 75 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: among Americans. Because of a limited proficiency with the English language, 76 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: Mexican nationals were often unaware of laws or standards that 77 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,679 Speaker 1: could protect them in their work, and as a result, 78 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 1: there were a lot of growers and farmers in the 79 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: American West and Southwest who were willing to overlook the 80 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: issue of whether a person had come into the United 81 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: States legally or not in order to get cheap, easy 82 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: to exploit labor. By the early nineteen twenties, though an 83 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:58,839 Speaker 1: increasing number of people were starting to think of this 84 00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: basically open border in the way it affected the labor 85 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: pool is a big problem. Large farms were driving down 86 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: their own costs by employing large numbers of Mexican migrant 87 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: workers at a really low rate of pay, and small 88 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: farms considered themselves to be at a big financial disadvantage. 89 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:21,200 Speaker 1: As a result, labor organizations started tacitly excluding Mexican workers 90 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: when they formed unions, and also started using their political 91 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,039 Speaker 1: clout to lobby the government for more enforcement along the 92 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: border and to put a stop to immigration from Mexico. 93 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty four, the United States formally established the 94 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,839 Speaker 1: Border Patrol as part of the Labor Appropriation Act. As 95 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: the US government started taking steps to secure the Mexican 96 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: border and curtail illegal immigration in the nineteen twenties, local 97 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,160 Speaker 1: communities and states began taking steps to regulate their own 98 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: Mexican population as well. As we've discussed in our podcasts 99 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 1: on Mendoes versus Westminster and Macario Garcia, much of the 100 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:03,400 Speaker 1: Southwest and West approached its Hispanic and Latino population in 101 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:05,359 Speaker 1: much the same way most of the rest of the 102 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: Nation did its black population through segregation, which was reinforced 103 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: either through laws or through social customs in places with 104 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:19,720 Speaker 1: large Mexican and Mexican American populations. Discrimination was widespread and 105 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:24,960 Speaker 1: socially accepted by much of the Anglo community during the 106 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:29,280 Speaker 1: Great Depression, which lasted roughly a decade beginning in nine nine, 107 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: and the Dust Bowl, which was a devastating period of 108 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:35,440 Speaker 1: drought and dust storms that struck much of the Southwest 109 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:38,599 Speaker 1: and Great Plains during the same time, life was pretty 110 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,359 Speaker 1: hard for pretty much everybody in the region, but it 111 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: was especially hard for people of Mexican descent. The Anglo 112 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,360 Speaker 1: community was increasingly hostile towards Mexican migrants, viewing them as 113 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:55,360 Speaker 1: unnecessary competition for incredibly scarce jobs. The industries that had 114 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,279 Speaker 1: been relying so heavily on Mexican labor for so long 115 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:02,159 Speaker 1: increasingly tried to exp blued Mexicans from their workforce during 116 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:06,040 Speaker 1: the Great Depression. Prior to the Great Depression, the United 117 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:08,960 Speaker 1: States and Mexico had been working together to find ways 118 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 1: to send Mexican nationals who were in the US illegally 119 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: back to Mexico. During the Great Depression, those efforts increased, 120 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: President Herbert Hoover ordered the Department of Labor to work 121 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: out a deportation program. The Mexican government tried to identify 122 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 1: its citizens who were in the United States and in 123 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: many cases paid for their return to Mexico. Also, due 124 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: to the Great Depression, Mexico was facing its own labor shortage, 125 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,560 Speaker 1: so part of the reason it paid to repatriot its 126 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:41,600 Speaker 1: citizens was to try to fill that labor shortage. Between 127 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: nine and ninety five, about eighty five thousand Mexicans voluntarily 128 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: returned to Mexico and another four hundred thousand words deported 129 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: or repatriated, depending on how you want to look at it. 130 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: Most of the ones who tried to return to the 131 00:07:57,040 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 1: United States during the Great Depression were turned away at 132 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:01,760 Speaker 1: the board, which at this point was a lot more 133 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: secure that it had been earlier than the nineteen twenties. However, 134 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 1: things shifted dramatically once again during World War Two. The 135 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:13,200 Speaker 1: draft applied to all men residing in the United States, 136 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 1: whether they were citizens or not. Roughly seven hundred and 137 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:20,680 Speaker 1: fifty thousand Hispanic men saw some sort of active service 138 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: in the war, and with so many men serving in 139 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:27,239 Speaker 1: the war, the job market changed dramatically in the United States, 140 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,840 Speaker 1: many men who had held agricultural jobs went to serve 141 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:33,440 Speaker 1: in the war, and then other men and women moved 142 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,080 Speaker 1: out of agriculture and into higher paying manufacturing jobs that 143 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: were either opened up as part of the war effort 144 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 1: or because the people who had been doing those jobs 145 00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: joined the armed forces. That were also disrupted trade with Europe, 146 00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: which cut off the United States sources of many goods 147 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: and meant that basically America had to make them for ourselves. 148 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:55,800 Speaker 1: The overall effect of all this on the labor pool 149 00:08:55,880 --> 00:09:00,080 Speaker 1: for agricultural work was, as you might suspect, enormous, and 150 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:02,800 Speaker 1: it led the US to work out a program specifically 151 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: to recruit Mexican workers. And we're going to talk more 152 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,200 Speaker 1: about that after we pause and thank one of the 153 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: sponsors that keeps our show going to return to the 154 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,080 Speaker 1: Bricero program. That's huge shift in the workforce during World 155 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:26,679 Speaker 1: War two had immediate and detrimental effects on agriculture. Soon 156 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: after the war began, the Southwest's cotton and vegetable growers 157 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:33,679 Speaker 1: were petitioning Congress to hire temporary workers to help them 158 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:36,679 Speaker 1: fill a labor shortfall that basically meant they couldn't harvest 159 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: what they needed to harvest. The key here was that 160 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:43,560 Speaker 1: this workforce would be temporary. In the words of a 161 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: report from President Harry S. Truman's Commission on Migratory Labor 162 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: later on in nine quote, the demand for migratory labor 163 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: is thus essentially twofold, to be ready to go to 164 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 1: work when needed, to be gone when not needed. So 165 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:04,000 Speaker 1: the United States, leaning on Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good neighbor policy, 166 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 1: started trying to work out a bilateral agreement with Mexico 167 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: that would allow Mexican nationals to enter the United States 168 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: to work and then return home when they were done. 169 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:17,520 Speaker 1: At first, Mexico was reluctant to do this for a 170 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 1: number of reasons. Mexican citizens who had previously immigrated to 171 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:25,480 Speaker 1: do exactly these types of work had faced discrimination and 172 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: exploitive treatment in the United States. Many had been forced 173 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:31,920 Speaker 1: out of their jobs and stranded during the Great Depression. 174 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,920 Speaker 1: So basically Mexico remembered all of that and just didn't 175 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:37,120 Speaker 1: have a lot of confidence that its citizens would be 176 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:40,040 Speaker 1: treated fairly if they went back to the United States 177 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:44,720 Speaker 1: to work. So Mexico insisted that any agreement spell out 178 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,440 Speaker 1: protections for its citizens. One that would protect Mexican laborers 179 00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:52,040 Speaker 1: while in the United States and would protect Mexico's own 180 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:57,360 Speaker 1: industries from suffering due to a lack of workers. Mexico did, however, 181 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:00,840 Speaker 1: see some potential benefits to allowing its citizens to work 182 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:04,240 Speaker 1: in the United States. It was hoped that anyone who 183 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:07,080 Speaker 1: entered the program would return home with money that would 184 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: be injected into the Mexican economy. Running parallel with that 185 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 1: was the idea that Mexico's workers would learn new techniques 186 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: relating to agriculture and then bring those new techniques back 187 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:21,439 Speaker 1: to Mexico. The result of this negotiation between Mexico and 188 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,600 Speaker 1: the United States was the Brissero program, which was launched 189 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:28,079 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty two by executive order and then formalized 190 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:32,920 Speaker 1: by a bilateral agreement on April nine. It would later 191 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,840 Speaker 1: be amended by Public Law seventy eight and nineteen fifty one. 192 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:39,760 Speaker 1: The basic terms of the Briscero program would be that 193 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:43,160 Speaker 1: this would be non military work was not acceptable to 194 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:46,320 Speaker 1: recruit Mexican nationals to work in agriculture and then put 195 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:50,320 Speaker 1: them into the military service. Mexican nationals would be protected 196 00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: from discrimination. Employers would pay transportation and living expenses, as 197 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,760 Speaker 1: well as a fair wage. Workers would get medical and 198 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:03,000 Speaker 1: sanitary services at no cost to them. People enrolling in 199 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,679 Speaker 1: the Broscero program would sign a Spanish language contract and 200 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:10,079 Speaker 1: be paid a fair wage that would not be less 201 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: than what was standard for Anglo workers in the area, 202 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 1: and workers under the age of fourteen were not allowed. 203 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,600 Speaker 1: There were also protections if there was a shortage of work, 204 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:25,360 Speaker 1: guaranteeing a subsistence level pay. If someone contracted with a 205 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:27,880 Speaker 1: Mexican national but turned out not to have work for 206 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,200 Speaker 1: them to do, a percentage of the broscero's pay was 207 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: also to be saved and returned to them once they 208 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: returned to Mexico. The criteria for the workers themselves were 209 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 1: that they had to be young, healthy men who had 210 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:44,600 Speaker 1: agricultural experience but did not own land of their own. 211 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:48,119 Speaker 1: They also needed to have a letter from local authorities 212 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,199 Speaker 1: saying that their labor wasn't needed where they actually lived, 213 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:53,240 Speaker 1: and that was to try to diminish the impact on 214 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:57,840 Speaker 1: Mexicans Mexico's own labor force. Applicants would go to collection 215 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:01,440 Speaker 1: points in Mexico, be fingerprinted, be sprayed down with d 216 00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:03,959 Speaker 1: d T, and then be taken to the United States. 217 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,760 Speaker 1: In spite of concerns that Mexican nationals would take jobs 218 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:12,160 Speaker 1: away from Americans. At first, this seemed like a mutually 219 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:15,560 Speaker 1: beneficial agreement. The United States would get the farm labor 220 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:19,400 Speaker 1: it needed, and Mexico would get new, modernized farming techniques, 221 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:22,840 Speaker 1: an injection of cash into its economy, and jobs for 222 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:27,480 Speaker 1: citizens who needed them. However, things took a turn for 223 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:30,720 Speaker 1: the worst pretty much immediately. Most of the work to 224 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,679 Speaker 1: be done was known as stoop labor. This was cultivation 225 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 1: work that was done using a short handled hoe stooped 226 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:41,800 Speaker 1: over rose into the in the fields. This was grueling 227 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: and like it could have been done with a long 228 00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:47,200 Speaker 1: handled hoe instead of a short handled hoe that required 229 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:49,520 Speaker 1: you to literally stoop over, But for some reason people 230 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:55,240 Speaker 1: thought a long handled hoo was damaging to the crops. Today, 231 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:59,599 Speaker 1: the short handled hoe is regarded as an occupational hazard 232 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:04,440 Speaker 1: and many states it is banned as unsafe. There were 233 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,559 Speaker 1: also way more interested Mexican nationals than there were jobs, 234 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:13,440 Speaker 1: and soon officials processing applications were accepting bribes to move 235 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:17,880 Speaker 1: people ahead of the line. Recruitment efforts became prone to corruption. 236 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 1: People who didn't meet these qualifications for one reason or 237 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,120 Speaker 1: another also started using the constant traffic back and forth 238 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:30,360 Speaker 1: across the border to make the crossing themselves illegally, and 239 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:33,280 Speaker 1: as was the case before, there were still plenty of 240 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:36,400 Speaker 1: growers who were willing to hire these people for almost 241 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: no money. Unscrupulous growers also figured out that a lot 242 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:43,080 Speaker 1: of the Mexican nationals who were actually part of the 243 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: Broscero program didn't have a lot of proficiency in English 244 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:48,920 Speaker 1: and weren't aware of the pay and protections they were 245 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: legally entitled to under the terms of this program. This 246 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:56,280 Speaker 1: definitely was not universal. In various parts of the United States, 247 00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 1: broscero's organized themselves and when on strike, to protest wages 248 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:04,600 Speaker 1: and poor treatment that were specifically outlawed in the Briscero 249 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:09,360 Speaker 1: program's terms. Many growers flouted the rules of the program 250 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: and hired people who had crossed illegally to get around 251 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: having to worry about all of this. Mexico eventually refused 252 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:19,520 Speaker 1: to send workers to the entire state of Texas because 253 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:23,680 Speaker 1: of flagrant hiring of unauthorized workers as well as other abuses. 254 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:30,239 Speaker 1: So soon illegal border crossings were rampant and the employment 255 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: of people who had entered illegally was widespread. Wages started 256 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,600 Speaker 1: to drop for basically everyone, because there were so many 257 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,240 Speaker 1: low wage workers who had become part of the economy 258 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:44,200 Speaker 1: in the Southwest that minimum standard housing and medical care 259 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:46,400 Speaker 1: that was supposed to be part of this program also 260 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:49,240 Speaker 1: didn't materialize, and a lot of people who actually were 261 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,240 Speaker 1: part of it wound up tightly packed together in barracks 262 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:56,680 Speaker 1: on canvas cots, where respiratory diseases and other illnesses spread 263 00:15:56,720 --> 00:16:01,440 Speaker 1: like wildfire. Over the twenty two year life of this program, 264 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:05,000 Speaker 1: four point five million Mexican nationals legally came to the 265 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:07,880 Speaker 1: United States to work, some of them returning to the 266 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:12,680 Speaker 1: US repeatedly under new contracts, but far more entered illegally 267 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:16,120 Speaker 1: outside the bounds of the program. There was actually a 268 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 1: six thousand percent increase in illegal immigration between nineteen forty 269 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:26,080 Speaker 1: four and nineteen fifty four. Support for the program, which 270 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:29,560 Speaker 1: had never been universal, started to wane after World War 271 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,120 Speaker 1: Two was over and Americans who had survived the war 272 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:34,760 Speaker 1: started to return home and to try to reclaim their 273 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,960 Speaker 1: old jobs. The official wartime program ended on December thirty 274 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,160 Speaker 1: one of nineteen forty seven, although the program continued to 275 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:45,840 Speaker 1: be extended for peacetime purposes for quite a while after that, 276 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,360 Speaker 1: and eventually Mexico, fed up with what it saw as 277 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,200 Speaker 1: the United States refusal to enforce the terms of their 278 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:56,760 Speaker 1: bilateral agreement, stopped participating by just declining to send any 279 00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:00,640 Speaker 1: more workers through official channels. According to the Texas State 280 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 1: Historical Association's Handbook of Texas, the US retaliated against Mexico's 281 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:09,879 Speaker 1: non participation in nineteen fifty one by allowing thousands of 282 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,760 Speaker 1: people to enter the US illegally, arresting them and then, 283 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:16,840 Speaker 1: rather than deporting them, turning them over to the Texas 284 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:21,440 Speaker 1: Employment Commission to be put to work. By the nineteen sixties, 285 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:25,000 Speaker 1: the Broscero program was officially on the way out. Labor 286 00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:28,359 Speaker 1: organizations had become a lot more influential in policy and 287 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,480 Speaker 1: had started advocating very vocally for jobs in the United 288 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:34,159 Speaker 1: States to be filled by Americans and not by Mexicans. 289 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: At the same time, increasing mechanization in the agriculture industry 290 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,280 Speaker 1: meant that a lot of the physical labor that had 291 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:44,399 Speaker 1: required this huge labor pool was disappearing. The need for 292 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:48,680 Speaker 1: physical labor became a lot smaller. The Brassero program needed 293 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:52,880 Speaker 1: to be reauthorized periodically, and there were increasingly contentious debates 294 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,480 Speaker 1: whenever it came up for renewal. Its re authorizations in 295 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:00,160 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one and nineteen sixty three in particular, were 296 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,800 Speaker 1: extremely hotly debated. There was a lot of pressure to 297 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:06,920 Speaker 1: end the program after a bus accident killed thirty two 298 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:11,400 Speaker 1: migrant workers in nineteen sixty three. The Burcero program eventually 299 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:15,879 Speaker 1: expired the following year in nineteen sixty four. With the 300 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:19,000 Speaker 1: abolition of the program. One of the things that proponents 301 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,879 Speaker 1: had often said about it turned out apparently to be true. 302 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:24,119 Speaker 1: A lot of people who were in favor of the 303 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,560 Speaker 1: program insisted that American workers did not want to do 304 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:29,920 Speaker 1: this work, which is why it needed to be open 305 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,679 Speaker 1: to Mexican nationals. After the abolition of the program, there 306 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:37,440 Speaker 1: were about five hundred and nineteen thousand unemployed people in California, 307 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:40,400 Speaker 1: which should have been plenty to cover the seventy thousand 308 00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:42,760 Speaker 1: people who were needed to do stoop labor in the 309 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: agricultural industry, but the nature the nature of the work 310 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:49,639 Speaker 1: and the wages that were that were offered meant that 311 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,320 Speaker 1: a lot of these jobs went unfilled and tons of 312 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables rotted in the fields, so that there 313 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:57,360 Speaker 1: was a lot of argument that this should have been 314 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:01,720 Speaker 1: like a gradual phase out rather than just an abrupt abolition. 315 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:04,439 Speaker 1: As we said at the top of the show. Running 316 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:08,120 Speaker 1: parallel to all of this was a mass deportation program 317 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:12,480 Speaker 1: focused on Mexican nationals called the horrible name Operation Went Back. 318 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about that after we pause 319 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:16,840 Speaker 1: once again and take a break and hear from one 320 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:26,920 Speaker 1: of our fantastic sponsors. To get back to Operation Went 321 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,439 Speaker 1: Back as an example of how the United States thinking 322 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:34,200 Speaker 1: on immigration shifted. In the nineteen thirties and forties, President 323 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:38,160 Speaker 1: Franklin D. Roosevelt combined two other government agencies to form 324 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:43,119 Speaker 1: the Immigration and Naturalization Service in three This agency was 325 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:47,159 Speaker 1: originally part of the Department of Labor in NTY that 326 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:49,600 Speaker 1: changed the I n S and the Border Patrol that 327 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:51,919 Speaker 1: fell under it moved from the Department of Labor to 328 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: the Department of Justice. So with that the I n 329 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:56,440 Speaker 1: S and the Border Patrol were no longer about work. 330 00:19:56,800 --> 00:19:59,920 Speaker 1: They were about law enforcement. And as we said up, 331 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,120 Speaker 1: Ration Went Back was a mass deportation effort that came 332 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: along after the I and S moved to the Department 333 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: of Justice. It's often portrayed as a swift decisive effort 334 00:20:09,840 --> 00:20:13,000 Speaker 1: to deport people who had entered the US illegally, but 335 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:15,880 Speaker 1: it was really part of a decades long effort that ran, 336 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,439 Speaker 1: as we said, parallel to most of the Burscero program. 337 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,600 Speaker 1: In the nineteen forties, for example, special Mexican deportation parties 338 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,640 Speaker 1: were established to try to apprehend and deport Mexican migrant 339 00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:32,399 Speaker 1: workers in There was an attempt to reinforce targeted portions 340 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:35,479 Speaker 1: of the border with chain link fencing. In the nineteen 341 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 1: forties and nineteen fifties, some border patrol agents ran an 342 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:43,000 Speaker 1: unsanctioned quote little barber shop, basically clippers that they carried 343 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,919 Speaker 1: with them to cut the hair of repeat immigration offenders, 344 00:20:46,359 --> 00:20:51,880 Speaker 1: sometimes in intentionally humiliating ways. In terms of the more 345 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:54,880 Speaker 1: above board efforts to control immigration, a lot of them 346 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:58,360 Speaker 1: really were across national The United States wanted to keep 347 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: illegal immigration from driving down wages and causing housing and 348 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:05,240 Speaker 1: social issues within its own borders, and Mexico wanted to 349 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,199 Speaker 1: have enough workers to meet its own labor needs, and 350 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,280 Speaker 1: also protected citizens from exploitation and discrimination while they were 351 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:15,720 Speaker 1: in the United States. In nineteen fifty one, a report 352 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 1: on Mexican migrant workers in the US pinned all sorts 353 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:23,400 Speaker 1: of social and economic ills on illegal immigration and characterized 354 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:27,560 Speaker 1: the situation as an invasion. Soon, the US was diverting 355 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:29,600 Speaker 1: more and more of the border patrol and I n 356 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:32,680 Speaker 1: S to the Mexican border, more than doubling the number 357 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:36,159 Speaker 1: of agents that were stationed there. In between nineteen forty 358 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,600 Speaker 1: three and nineteen fifty three, there were a lot more 359 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,840 Speaker 1: people apprehended in illegal border crossings. The number rose from 360 00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:46,240 Speaker 1: eleven thousand, seven hundred and fifteen in nineteen forty three 361 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,840 Speaker 1: to eight hundred and eighty five thousand, five hundred eighty 362 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,640 Speaker 1: seven in nineteen fifty three, with Mexicans making up more 363 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:57,720 Speaker 1: and more of those apprehended. At the same time, though, 364 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:01,400 Speaker 1: the United States didn't actually increase the immigration and Naturalization 365 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:03,680 Speaker 1: services budgets, so even though there were more agents on 366 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,639 Speaker 1: the Mexican border, there were fewer agents overall, with the 367 00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:10,200 Speaker 1: forces numbers dropping a third between nineteen two and nineteen 368 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:14,000 Speaker 1: fifty one. When Dwight the Eisenhower took office as president 369 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,920 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty three, it's estimated that three million Mexican 370 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,720 Speaker 1: nationals in the US had entered the country illegally, but 371 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,399 Speaker 1: previous efforts to deport them had increasingly stalled out because 372 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:28,560 Speaker 1: so many farms and ranches were dependent on this illicit 373 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 1: labor pool. In the words of Walt Edwards, who served 374 00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:34,560 Speaker 1: in the Border Patrol from nineteen fifty one to nineteen 375 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:38,360 Speaker 1: sixty four, quote, when we caught illegal aliens on farms 376 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:41,960 Speaker 1: and ranches, the farmer or rancher would often call and complain, 377 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,480 Speaker 1: and depending on how politically connected they were, there would 378 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:50,480 Speaker 1: be political intervention. Yeah. That political intervention was basically getting 379 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,040 Speaker 1: their workers out of jail and turning away from the 380 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:55,919 Speaker 1: fact that they were not supposed to be in the 381 00:22:55,960 --> 00:23:01,639 Speaker 1: United States. In nineteen fifty four, Eisenhower pointed General Joseph Swing, 382 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:04,720 Speaker 1: also known as Jumping Joe, as the commissioner of the 383 00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:09,600 Speaker 1: Immigration and Naturalization Service. Swing started transferring immigration officials who 384 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:11,840 Speaker 1: had spent a long time in the Southwest to other 385 00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:14,200 Speaker 1: parts of the country with the hope of breaking all 386 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,960 Speaker 1: those social and political ties to all the local farmers, ranchers, 387 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,240 Speaker 1: and political big wigs that was leading the service to 388 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:26,919 Speaker 1: not actually enforce immigration. Then, on June nine four, Swing 389 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:30,919 Speaker 1: announced the commencement of Operation Went Back. One arm of 390 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:34,320 Speaker 1: the operation was meant to physically apprehend and remove people 391 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:38,120 Speaker 1: who had illegally immigrated into the United States. The other 392 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,280 Speaker 1: was meant to publicize this effort to make sure people 393 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:43,919 Speaker 1: who weren't in the country legally knew about it and 394 00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:47,280 Speaker 1: see the deportation force as a threat. A lot of 395 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:51,240 Speaker 1: this publicity deliberately exaggerated the size and aggressiveness of the 396 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:54,800 Speaker 1: deportation force in the hope of scaring people into leaving 397 00:23:54,800 --> 00:24:01,480 Speaker 1: the country voluntarily. On June seventy four, immigration officials started 398 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,280 Speaker 1: the actual sweeps to apprehend and deport people who had 399 00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:08,920 Speaker 1: illegally immigrated. About seven hundred and fifty immigration agents moved 400 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,239 Speaker 1: north through California and Arizona. They started in those few 401 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:16,080 Speaker 1: states because the entrenched resistance to deportation was lower there, 402 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:17,560 Speaker 1: so they were hoping to kind of get a good 403 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:20,960 Speaker 1: foothold before moving on to places where it was more contentious. 404 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,320 Speaker 1: They had a goal of apprehending a thousand people who 405 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,360 Speaker 1: had entered the country illegally every day. By the end 406 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:31,280 Speaker 1: of July, fifty thousand people had been arrested in California 407 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,560 Speaker 1: and Arizona, and an estimated four d eighty eight thousand 408 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,680 Speaker 1: had fled the United States on their own, and as 409 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,679 Speaker 1: Tracy had said. It started in California and Arizona, but 410 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:44,400 Speaker 1: from there it moved into Utah, Nevada, Texas, and Idaho, 411 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:47,919 Speaker 1: and immigration officials put the people that were apprehended in 412 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:51,880 Speaker 1: these sweeps onto trains and buses bound for Mexico, far 413 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,280 Speaker 1: enough south that they simply couldn't turn around and re 414 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: entered the United States. Two ships were also used for 415 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: this purpose, the Emancipation In and the Mercurial, carried people 416 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:05,440 Speaker 1: from Port Isabel in Texas about five hundred miles to 417 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:10,439 Speaker 1: Vera Cruz in Mexico. At the time, the i n 418 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:14,359 Speaker 1: S claimed that it deported one point three million people 419 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:17,400 Speaker 1: during operation went Back, but those numbers have not really 420 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:21,080 Speaker 1: held up to historical scrutiny. It was definitely lower than that, 421 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,719 Speaker 1: and it might have been as low as three hundred thousand. 422 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:28,000 Speaker 1: These efforts actually disrupted some of the agriculture industry in 423 00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,840 Speaker 1: the states that were targeted by deporting their workforces. Like 424 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:34,040 Speaker 1: we said, a lot of the agriculture industry in the 425 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,840 Speaker 1: Southwest and West had become highly dependent on this illegal labor. 426 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:41,040 Speaker 1: The government tried to reassure people that they could get 427 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,720 Speaker 1: new labor through the Brascero program, which was still in 428 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:47,160 Speaker 1: effect at this point. In addition to the immediate impact 429 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,440 Speaker 1: that it had on the agriculture industry, there were other 430 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,560 Speaker 1: problems with Project Wipe Back as well, aside from its name, 431 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:55,720 Speaker 1: which I'm going to say again is a racial slur 432 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: we would not normally say. On this show, everyone of 433 00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,159 Speaker 1: Mexican to scent was suspect, whether they had entered the 434 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,359 Speaker 1: country illegally or not, and a lot of the lawful residents, 435 00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:09,480 Speaker 1: some of them American citizens, were deported in error. Families 436 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:11,399 Speaker 1: were broken up when some members were caught up in 437 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,560 Speaker 1: a sweep and others weren't. Children were left with anyone, 438 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:16,959 Speaker 1: without anyone to look after them when their parents were 439 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:21,480 Speaker 1: arrested and deported. Mexican American communities were disrupted when their 440 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,280 Speaker 1: populations were basically decimated, and then that would basically leave 441 00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: whoever was left without the basic life amenities that they needed, 442 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,760 Speaker 1: and the problems did not end north of the border. 443 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:35,920 Speaker 1: People who were dropped off in Mexico were often left 444 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:39,600 Speaker 1: in completely unfamiliar territory where they had no friends or family, 445 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 1: without any food, without water, and with no money. Eighty 446 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:47,560 Speaker 1: eight people from just one roundup died of heat stroke 447 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 1: after being left in remote territory without food or water. 448 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 1: Conditions on the emancipation and the mercuria were also appalling, 449 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:00,080 Speaker 1: incredibly overcrowded and dismal. On one voyage a Ryan, it 450 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,800 Speaker 1: broke out and the use of ships was eventually stopped 451 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:07,320 Speaker 1: after seven people drowned during one voyage. Apart from all 452 00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,600 Speaker 1: of that, that ten percent of their pay that was 453 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: supposed to be withheld for legitimate participants of the Burcero 454 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:15,399 Speaker 1: program and then returned to them when they returned to Mexico, 455 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:18,480 Speaker 1: A lot of people never saw it. A settlement was 456 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:20,800 Speaker 1: in the works in two thousand and eight to restore 457 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:23,760 Speaker 1: this pay to the former workers and their descendants, but 458 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,600 Speaker 1: as of there were still marches and protests going on 459 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,440 Speaker 1: to have this money restored because it had never actually happened. 460 00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,520 Speaker 1: So that is the basics of like this long kind 461 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:40,680 Speaker 1: of convoluted, intertwined effort to both recruit and deport Mexican 462 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 1: nationals in the United States. Uh. I know for sure 463 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,200 Speaker 1: that there are folks in the world whose mindset is, well, 464 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:55,399 Speaker 1: they're illegally in here. It serves them right. I personally 465 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:59,680 Speaker 1: think that if you are traveling hundreds of miles away 466 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,800 Speaker 1: from your family to do physically grueling, stoop labor for 467 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:08,439 Speaker 1: little money. Like imagine what your life is like to 468 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,919 Speaker 1: lead you to that decision? Right, Like what other option 469 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 1: might you have? Have empathy? That's what I'm saying. Uh, 470 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: do you have some listener mail that is empathetic or otherwise? Oh? 471 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,480 Speaker 1: It is, It's so empathetic. It's from Richard, and it 472 00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:32,240 Speaker 1: is about our recent podcast on Desmond T. Doss and 473 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:36,400 Speaker 1: Um And Richard says, Dear Tracy and Holly, I want 474 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:37,919 Speaker 1: to drop you a note and tell you how much 475 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:39,920 Speaker 1: I enjoy listening to the podcast. I go for a 476 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:41,760 Speaker 1: walk every morning before I go to work, and I 477 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,480 Speaker 1: listened to podcasts as i walk. I'm pretty sure that 478 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:46,920 Speaker 1: friends and family are tired of me telling them things 479 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:49,960 Speaker 1: I have learned by listening to you. Your recent podcast 480 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:52,120 Speaker 1: on Desmond T. Doss really struck a chord with me. 481 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:54,320 Speaker 1: I didn't learn about him in history class, but I 482 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: was familiar with his story. When I was a boy, 483 00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,160 Speaker 1: I love to read. My favorite place was the public 484 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,280 Speaker 1: library and long Mont, Colorado. During the time I was 485 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,000 Speaker 1: going to school in long I read just about every 486 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:07,640 Speaker 1: book in the kids section of the library. I still 487 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 1: remember being disappointed that I was only allowed to check 488 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,160 Speaker 1: out three books at a time. I also didn't understand 489 00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,160 Speaker 1: why I couldn't check out books from the adult section 490 00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:18,440 Speaker 1: on my kids library card. I'm gonna pause from this 491 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:23,600 Speaker 1: for this, from for this. This was exactly my experience 492 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,480 Speaker 1: as a child, so it was pretty close to mine. 493 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:28,760 Speaker 1: And I will say when I first read this email, 494 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:30,959 Speaker 1: when it first came in, my first thought was, Tracy 495 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,600 Speaker 1: is going to fall in love with this? Yep. I 496 00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:37,640 Speaker 1: also had the problem of when I was in preschool, 497 00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:39,360 Speaker 1: I had read all the books in the classroom and 498 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:41,520 Speaker 1: then there weren't anymore, and I was very frustrated by 499 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,680 Speaker 1: the situation as a as just as a comparison. My 500 00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:48,120 Speaker 1: solution was to kind of sweet talk the librarian and 501 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 1: I got books on the down low. I was too 502 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:56,840 Speaker 1: I was too socially anxious to do this. In kindergarten, 503 00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:58,840 Speaker 1: my teacher wanted me to go to the library by 504 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,120 Speaker 1: myself to get books to read, because like I already 505 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:04,480 Speaker 1: could read, so I didn't really need the lessons about 506 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: how to read, and I would just I would just 507 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 1: cry because I couldn't handle the idea of going to 508 00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,600 Speaker 1: the library by myself and asking a stranger to help 509 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,120 Speaker 1: me find a book. Anyway, I'm gonna get back to 510 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,280 Speaker 1: the letter now, which is much more positive than the 511 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: story that I just told. So Richard says, I would 512 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:22,840 Speaker 1: take my three books home and have them read in 513 00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:24,640 Speaker 1: a day or two, and then beg my MoMA to 514 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,440 Speaker 1: take me back to the library. I kept a flashlight 515 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 1: handy for reading after I was supposed to be asleep 516 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 1: the long mom The long Mont Public Library was my 517 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,320 Speaker 1: access to knowledge. One of the books that I read 518 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:37,800 Speaker 1: that made a big impression on me was The Unlikeliest 519 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:42,040 Speaker 1: Hero by Bouten Herndon, was a story of Desmond Doss. 520 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,360 Speaker 1: I had the honor of listening to Desmond Doss speak 521 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 1: to a group of young people. I had taken a 522 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:50,520 Speaker 1: group of young boys, they just ten to fourteen to 523 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,880 Speaker 1: hear him. After his talk, my boys wanted to meet him. 524 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,480 Speaker 1: We waited for a chance to talk to him. Doesn't 525 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: state until everyone who wanted to meet him had a chance. 526 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:01,320 Speaker 1: He took the time to visit with each one of 527 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,520 Speaker 1: the boys personally. After he talked, the boys loved him 528 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,120 Speaker 1: and were very impressed. They said to me, we got 529 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,000 Speaker 1: to meet a real American hero. I am proud to 530 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,240 Speaker 1: have been able to meet this gentleman. His story made 531 00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:15,520 Speaker 1: an impression on me when I was a boy, and 532 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,840 Speaker 1: when I met him, I was impressed by his humility. 533 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,040 Speaker 1: Even though everyone in the audience wanted to hear about 534 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: his medal of honor, he was uncomfortable talking about his actions. 535 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,560 Speaker 1: He focused more on being prepared and being willing to 536 00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:30,160 Speaker 1: help others. He stressed the importance of standing up for 537 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,120 Speaker 1: your convictions. I remember talking him talking about the poster 538 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:35,560 Speaker 1: that showed the Ten Commandments in the Lord's Prayer and 539 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:37,720 Speaker 1: what an impression it made on him. Thank you for 540 00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 1: making more people aware of this humble American hero, Richard. 541 00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,720 Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Richard. I don't have anything else 542 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:48,600 Speaker 1: to add because I interrupted a letter to add all 543 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:52,760 Speaker 1: of my commentary support your local library. I can say 544 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:57,640 Speaker 1: that sure, I so much of our work is tied 545 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:01,360 Speaker 1: directly to our local library. And I have such such 546 00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:03,640 Speaker 1: fond memories of my local library when I was a 547 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:07,120 Speaker 1: child and summer reading programs, and where we lived was 548 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:08,960 Speaker 1: kind of rural, so it took us a little while 549 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,160 Speaker 1: to get to the library, but all summer long, I've 550 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,800 Speaker 1: basically looked forward to go into the library and getting 551 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:18,760 Speaker 1: as many books as possible. Uh. 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