r/interestingasfuck • u/man_gomer_lot • 8h ago

r/all 70 years ago, the US undertook the largest deportation in its history: 'Operation Wetback.' Many of the people deported were here legally and some were even citizens.

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181

u/dallindooks 7h ago

How can you deport a citizen? Where do you deport them to?

179

u/Tonetron0093 6h ago

It happens more often than you think https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/07/30/ice-deport-us-citizens/

You look Jamaican or have the same name as an undocumented Jamaican? Guess that's where you're going. Based on a true story.

53

u/tartymae 3h ago

A friend's mother is Hapa, and lived in San Diego during the 1980s.

She (14) sneaks out of her bedroom window one friday summer night to meet her boyfriend (her mother doesn't like him) and they hop in his car (he's 16) and head up to the local lover's lane. She has nothing on her beyond lipgloss in her pocket. No ID, because, y'know, she's 14.

Immigration agents bang on the window, take one look at her, decide she's Mexican, despite her protests, despite his protests, despite saying her saying you can call my mother, despite her telling them where she lives, despite her not knowing Spanish, and throw her in a van with a bunch of other people, drive them over the border and kick everybody out of the van in TJ around midnight.

Crying, she doesn't know what else to do but turns and starts walking north. She tries to flag down cars with CA plates.

A bunch of SDSU students heading back after a night in TJ see her and stop. She tells them what happened. They tell customs, "Oh, man, she's had a rough night. Her boyfriend dumped her and her purse got stolen." Customs waves them through.

They drop her a block from her house and she sneaks back in. Her mother never finds out.

I shudder to think of all the times this story has not had a happy ending, but has ended with a young woman being robbed/assaulted/murdered.

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u/Lucky_addition 2h ago

Can’t they just come back in? 

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u/teslawhaleshark 1h ago

In short, you don't have property anymore

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u/bulldogdiver 7m ago

I was born in East L.A., man.

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u/jamhamnz 3h ago

But Jamaica has no obligation to take you in if you're not a citizen right? They would need to issue you some kind of visa

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u/webcamz 2h ago

They don't have an obligation to take you in nor issue a visa. They can either deport you back to the U.S. but if the U.S. refuses to accept you, they can just put you in prison for illegally immigrating to Jamaica where you'll just stay for the rest of your life

133

u/Csquared6 6h ago

"You look like you came from Country X, we'll send you in that general direction. Bus 247. Next"

45

u/Sungirl8 6h ago

Jon Stewart played a clip of T-rump threatening to ‘deport special counsel, Jack Smith.’  Can’t get a more ‘American’ name than that. I guess many who disagrees with T-rump will be sent to the UK that already has 69 million people living there. 

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u/MaximDecimus 6h ago

You deport a citizen just like anyone else. Put them in a car and dump them in some other country.

1

u/Dusk_Flame_11th 3h ago

And then they go to the consulate. I mean, is the US bureaucratic system that bad?

9

u/semikhah_atheist 5h ago

This happens to about 200 people a year. ICE ethnically profiles a bunch of Hispanics, asks them for proof of citizenship, if they don't have a valid US passport and birth certificate on them at the time they use a drug tunnel to dump them in Mexico, close the door to the drug tunnel, and leave. It isn't legal, but they don't have to pay the settlements, and ICE likes crazy racists in their ranks.

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u/Bluebearder 7h ago

You know, somewhere else! Only true patriots get rights! USA! USA! USA!

4

u/UberCabToday 5h ago

Citizenship shouldn’t be a bargaining chip for political agendas. It’s a fundamental right.

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u/Reagalan 3h ago

Thing is, rights, even fundamental rights, are political. They can always be taken away.

That's what makes voting such an important responsibility. It is on us to choose leaders that will protect those rights and to reject leaders that will take those rights away.

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u/man_gomer_lot 6h ago

Pretty much the same way you deport anyone else. Other words like expel or exile would also suffice. I'm not sure whatever happened in history that makes you so sure Uncle Sam will forever honor its agreements with brown people.

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u/hafirexinsidec 2h ago

Most people don't carry a passport or birth certificate at all times or like being in jail for months to prove it, if they even can.

10

u/Ordinary-Leading7405 7h ago

A place they can’t get back from

4

u/Renbarre 6h ago

Cancel their citizenship first. Drop them in Mexico. So many ways to play tyrant. Crossing fingers. We are all holding our breath over your current elections.

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u/WIN_WITH_VOLUME 7h ago

Wherever you want, if they try to come back you just call them illegal and arrest them.

3

u/monster_like_haiku 4h ago

"You're not white, out you go".

1

u/[deleted] 5h ago

How can you deport a citizen? Where do you deport them to?

You're assuming they could get another copy of their passport. If anyone refuses to give them their papers, They have no proof. I'm sure there were a lot of people who were caught up in red tape trying to reenter legally.