Ron DeSantis wants to bring back an extreme 1950s-era immigration policy that saw the mass deportation of up to 1.3 million migrants.
During a Wednesday night town hall, DeSantis floated the idea of resurrecting President Dwight Eisenhower’s racist-named “Operation Wetback.” That program sparked the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, as authorities employed military-style tactics to deport Mexican immigrants, some of whom had been naturalized.
When asked if every undocumented migrant would be deported, DeSantis said, “Everybody is subject to that.”
“We’re gonna do the Biden eight million, that’s a big task,” he continued, referring to the Republican estimate that eight million migrants have supposedly entered the country during Joe Biden’s time in office. “Eisenhower had a program in the ’50s, so we’re gonna do that.”
Anywhere from 300,000 to 1.3 million people were deported under Operation Wetback, which lasted for three months in 1954. Historians say it is impossible to know exactly how many people were forcibly removed, because some people reentered the U.S. and were deported again.
The policy disrupted families, communities, and U.S. business operations that relied on migrant labor. Tens of thousands of people were sent to random parts of Mexico, where they struggled to find their footing. The conditions in which they were detained and transported were brutal, and thousands of people died from sunstroke and disease.
DeSantis has promised repeatedly to crack down on immigration, often in cruel and inhumane ways. This is the second time he is raising the idea of bringing back Eisenhower’s policy. He also suggested in September that the U.S. shoot alleged cartel members on sight at the border. DeSantis offered no details on how to actually identify a cartel member by sight alone.
The Florida governor doubled down Wednesday on his terrible immigration policy ideas in an op-ed for the Des Moines Register. He promised to declare a national emergency over immigration, crack down on asylum requests, and to finish building the border wall and make Mexico pay for it. DeSantis also threatened consequences for Mexico and other Central American countries for letting so many migrants reach the U.S. border.
“Florida under my leadership has been a bulwark of immigration enforcement,” DeSantis bragged. “I sent illegal aliens out of Florida’s communities and to so-called ‘sanctuary cities,’ such as Martha’s Vineyard. And I signed the strongest anti-illegal immigration legislation in the country.”
He failed to mention that he has been accused of human trafficking by sending migrants to other states. Massachusetts officials are urging the Justice Department to look into Desantis’s actions.
Many of Florida’s new immigration laws have disrupted businesses, with farmers saying that migrant workers are avoiding the Sunshine State altogether. Backlash has been so bad that even Republican lawmakers have had to admit they messed up.