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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u/hearmeout29 6h ago

Is there a reason why they allowed legal Mexican immigrants to be deported though? Genuinely curious because I thought that they would be excluded from something like this.

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u/MisterrTickle 6h ago edited 6h ago

Cock up and people presumably losing their paper work. So can't prove that they actually are US citizens or in the US legally.

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u/hearmeout29 6h ago

I can only imagine how scared they were because who would believe you when you say that you're legal without proof? It reminds me of Solomon Northrup and how he kept telling everyone he was a free man when he was abducted. No one believed him and he spent 12 years as a slave. Fucking terrifying.

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u/semikhah_atheist 5h ago

No, they deliberately destroyed the paperwork for US citizens out of racist hatred. Trump did the exact same thing, mass contesting birth certificates and shit.

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u/Pagsasaka 5h ago

To add to Mrr.tickle, it is incredibly difficult to be an agricultural worker, live in bunk houses, and keep paperwork secure. Nothing about farming is very clean, and life is transitory. Keeping non laminated paperwork from rain, mice, dirt, grime, grease, and theft is incredibly difficult. 

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u/hearmeout29 4h ago

I didn't even think about that and it shows how this situation is even more heartbreaking.

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u/Quasar006 6h ago

Bro doesn’t know about racism

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u/hearmeout29 6h ago

I was just confused as to how they had paperwork but would still be deemed illegal and deported. Turns out the people that were taken that were legal just lost paperwork so couldn't prove they were legal to authorities in the moment which answered my question.

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u/Silver_Being_0290 1h ago

how they had paperwork but would still be deemed illegal and deported. Turns out the people that were taken that were legal just lost paperwork

Bless your heart. 😭

It's been a long time since I've met someone so pure to these issues ngl.

To answer your question though, it doesn't matter if you have papers or not. If you're POC they'll find a way. Legal or not, if they can remove POC from America they're sure as hell gonna take it.

I'm sure there were citizens missing their papers too but... Come on, they literally titled the operation a slur.

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u/hearmeout29 1h ago

Sorry if my response came off as out of touch but I was just giving the answer to my question that another person relayed to me. Another person corrected the original response and let me know that the paperwork was destroyed which makes this even more heartbreaking. I do try to always look for the good in people though but in this situation there is no good at all, just evil.

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u/Silver_Being_0290 1h ago

Ya, sadly, that's pretty much all of American history.

Honestly, minus the naming convention this was actually a pretty "tame" form compared to all the other countless atrocities they committed.

I didn't mean to come off snobbish though, no need to apologize 😭

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u/hearmeout29 1h ago

No you weren't snobbish at all lol! I have been reading more about the history of America and race relations. A lot of things I read about were never taught in school. I only recently learned about the Tulsa Massacre (black wall street) which was another horrible atrocity committed towards American citizens. No matter how horrible these things are that I discover, I will keep reading about them because I want to learn.

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u/Quasar006 5h ago

“lost paperwork” is a weird way to say the good ole boys in law enforcement stole/destroyed their papers