Tag: operation wetback
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Says America Has Gone Back To The Days Of ‘Gringo Feo’ — The Ugly American

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Says America Has Gone Back To The Days Of ‘Gringo Feo’ — The Ugly American

In an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday, former Mexican President Vicente Fox said that America was in the midst of a demagogic, populist presidential campaign, recalling the old days of “Gringo Feo” — the Ugly American.

Relations between the two nations have fluctuated slightly during Obama’s two terms in office — especially in 2010, after Arizona passed a “show me your papers” law giving police the authority to check anyone’s immigration status — though on the whole Mexican citizens have reacted favorably when asked about the United States in recent years: surveys in 2013, 2014, and 2015 all found that more than 60 percent of Mexicans approve of their northern neighbor, according to the Pew Research Center’s Global Indicators Database.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is viewed favorably by just 2 percent of Mexicans, according to a recent poll by the daily El Financieroas reported in the Miami Herald this week.

Writing for the Herald, Andreés Oppenheimer examined the possibility that Trump’s recent visit to Mexico, the final nail in the political coffin of unpopular Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, “may resurrect Mexico’s anti-American revolutionary nationalism and hurt the United States for years to come”:

Mexico’ leftist populist opposition candidate for the 2018 elections, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is already telling his cheering audiences that, if he wins, Mexico will no longer be a U.S. “colony” — much like what the Venezuelan and Cuban regimes tell their people every day.

Eduardo R. Huchim, a columnist with the daily Reforma, suggested that Peña Nieto could tell Trump that, if he wins, Mexico “will end its anti-drug cooperation” and “immediately revise the state of U.S. investments and transactions in this country.”

Peña Nieto “has unleashed a wave of nationalist fervor” in Mexico, wrote political scientist Jose Antonio Aguilar Rivera in Nexos magazine. He added that “the symbolic implications” of Trump’s visit with its “images of surrender, of blindness, are enormous.”

Fox’s “ugly American” reference recalls the days of Dwight Eisenhower, who forced more than a million of Mexican-Americans, including some citizens, out of the country as part of his anti-immigration “Operation Wetback,” which Trump cites favorably often.

For Mexicans, a Trump presidency would not only upset the good feelings between the two nations during the Obama years — it would also mean a reversion to the United States as bully superpower, and a possible political re-alignment under a new wave of populist and nationalist politics.

Photo: Former President of Mexico Vicente Fox attends a religious service of the late Lorenzo Zambrano in San Pedro Garza Garcia, on the outskirts of Monterrey in this May 14, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril 

Trump’s Son: ‘My Father Is A Patriot, And He’s An American’

Trump’s Son: ‘My Father Is A Patriot, And He’s An American’

Donald Trump is in hot water for calling for mass deportations, and for fondly recalling during Tuesday night’s debate the good old days of “Operation Wetback” under President Eisenhower. On Thursday, his son Eric Trump launched a vociferous defense of his father’s character.

“I don’t think there’s anything inhumane about it,” Trump the Younger declared, in an appearance on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, displaying the trademark Trump bluster. “The reality is we have 102 million Americans that don’t have work — and my father is a patriot, and he’s an American, and he thinks the citizens of this country should have a job waiting for them.”

Note: Trump and his campaign often make astronomical claims about the number of Americans who can’t find work. PolitiFact has drilled into these numbers, and shown that in order to get there from the working-age population, Trump must count a whole lot of demographics that don’t normally work on a regular basis.

This would include such categories as: senior citizens, the disabled, stay-at-home moms and dads, high school students, full-time college students, and people still in job training. But hey — let’s Make America Great Again, and get the old folks back on the assembly lines!

Eric Trump continued: “And you see all these college students out there right now — and many graduate from the best colleges, and they literally can’t find work. Yet there are people coming across the border illegally — despite the fact that there are literally millions of people signed up, and trying to get into this country legally — they’re coming across illegally, and no one’s doing anything about it.”

It does seem kind of odd to imagine the white-collar job searches of college graduates being confounded by the manual laborers crossing the Mexican border.

Endorse This: Bill O’Reilly Vs. Donald Trump — Really

Endorse This: Bill O’Reilly Vs. Donald Trump — Really

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Donald Trump has gotten hammered in the press for his effusive praise during the Republican debate for President Eisenhower’s mass deportation of undocumented workers — a program that was actually called “Operation Wetback.”

It’s gotten so bad that The Donald was even put on the spot during an appearance on Fox News — with Bill O’Reilly, of all people, who neatly explained to him all the inhumanity that was actually committed during those good old Eisenhower years that Trump longs for.

“Do you know what the program was called?” O’Reilly asked.

“I do, but I wouldn’t use the term,” Trump said, with even some apparent hesitation. “I don’t like that term at all.”

Though come to think of it, it’s possible all this talk of the brutality of mass deportation might just make Trump’s supporters like him even more.

The key exchange is just after the 5:00 mark in the video above.

Video viaThe O’Reilly Factor/Fox News.

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Late Night Roundup: Don’t Like Everything About Ike

Late Night Roundup: Don’t Like Everything About Ike

One moment in particular from the Republican debate came under scrutiny from the late night comics: When Donald Trump praised Dwight Eisenhower for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants — a little program that was actually called “Operation Wetback.”

Stephen Colbert declared: “So you might want to update that button to, ‘I Like Ike — With Significant Reservations.'”

Trevor Noah had a sort of praise for Operation Wetback: “Don’t judge. I know that name may seem crude, people. But there’s something to be said for a policy that doesn’t hide where it’s coming from. It’s like if stop-and-frisk was called ‘Hey! What’s in that black guy’s pockets?'”

Larry Wilmore detailed the actual cruelties of Operation Wetback, including that people died when they got dumped in remote desert locations: “This, according to Donald Trump, is a model he wants America to repeat. This isn’t funny anymore — it’s just stupid.”