Muscatine

I was here

back in the 50s when a local cannery brought in lots of Migrants to help with the tomato processing. The company found out real quick that they could work them 16 hours a day at a lower pay scale. They also did not pay overtime to these temps so it was a great deal for the company.
Nedl probably remembers the canvas covered trucks dropping off a truck load of them on friday night on 2nd street.
Today we still have the same problem only it has spread over the whole united states.
The only way that I can see to remove this problem is to hold the employeer responsible when they are caught working for him. I am talking about jail time period.
When they are caught and Mexico refuses to take them back, they are set free.
Why not haul them back and send them over the bridge instead of paying their way?
Just some of my thoughts.

here is the anwser

June 20, 2007
Border Patrol vets offer tips on curbing illegal immigration
One day in 1954, Border Patrol agent Walt Edwards picked up a newspaper
in
Big Spring, Texas, and saw some startling news. The government was
launching
an all-out drive to oust illegal aliens from the United States.

The orders came straight from the top, where the new president, Dwight
Eisenhower, had put a former West Point classmate, Gen. Joseph Swing,
in
charge of immigration enforcement.


General Swing's fast-moving campaign soon secured America's borders -
an
accomplishment no other president has since equaled. Illegal migration
had
dropped 95 percent by the late 1950s.


Several retired Border Patrol agents who took part in the 1950s effort,

including Mr. Edwards, say much of what Swing did could be repeated
today.


''Some say we cannot send 12 million illegals now in the United States
back
where they came from. Of course we can!'' Edwards says.


Donald Coppock, who headed the Patrol from 1960 to 1973, says that if
Swing
and Ike were still running immigration enforcement, ''they'd be on top
of
this in a minute.''


William Chambers, another '50s veteran, agrees. ''They could do a
pretty
good job'' sealing the border.


Edwards says: ''When we start enforcing the law, these various
businesses
are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a
legal
workforce.''


While Congress debates building a fence on the border, these veterans
say
other actions should have higher priority.


1. End the current practice of taking captured Mexican aliens to the
border
and releasing them. Instead, deport them deep into Mexico, where return
to
the US would be more costly.


2. Crack down hard on employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the
aliens
won't come.


3. End ''catch and release'' for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for
illegal migrants not from Mexico to be set free after their arrest if
they
promise to appear later before a judge. Few show up.


The Patrol veterans say enforcement could also be aided by a legalized
guest- worker program that permits Mexicans to register in their
country for
temporary jobs in the US. Eisenhower's team ran such a program. It
permitted
up to 400,000 Mexicans a year to enter the US for various agriculture
jobs
that lasted for 12 to 52 weeks.

part 2

more

June 20, 2007
In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph ''Jumpin' Joe'' Swing, a
former
West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS
commissioner.


Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas
and
Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada, favored open borders, and were dead
set
against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But General Swing's
close
connections to the president shielded him - and the Border Patrol -
from
meddling by powerful political and corporate interests.


One of Swing's first decisive acts was to transfer certain entrenched
immigration officials out of the border area to other regions of the
country
where their political connections with people such as Senator Johnson
would
have no effect.


Then on June 17, 1954, what was called ''Operation Wetback'' began.
Because
political resistance was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup
of
aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept northward through
agricultural
areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July,
over
50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Another 488,000, fearing
arrest, had fled the country.


By mid-July, the crackdown extended northward into Utah, Nevada, and
Idaho,
and eastward to Texas.


By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and an
estimated
500,000 to 700,000 illegals had left the Lone Star State voluntarily.


Unlike today, Mexicans caught in the roundup were not simply released
at the
border, where they could easily reenter the US. To discourage their
return,
Swing arranged for buses and trains to take many aliens deep within
Mexico
before being set free.


Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the
Emancipation and
the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to
Vera
Cruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles south.


The sea voyage was ''a rough trip, and they did not like it,'' says Don

Coppock, who worked his way up from Border Patrolman in 1941 to
eventually
head the Border Patrol from 1960 to 1973.


Mr. Coppock says he ''cannot understand why [President] Bush let
[today's]
problem get away from him as it has. I guess it was his compassionate
conservatism, and trying to please [Mexican President] Vincente Fox.''


There are now said to be 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the
US.
Of the Mexicans who live here, an estimated 85 percent are here
illegally.

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This morning-

I was watching Farm Report (every Sunday 6-7am, ch. 6). They were discussing the crops that were going unpicked in the fields this year because of the shortage of pickers. Kinda shoots down the theory that migrants take jobs americans don't want. Where the hell were they?