we learn from history that we do not learn from history
History might Not Repeat Itself, But It does Rhyme
The sound of tires crunching on gravel echoed down the narrow streets of Boyle Heights. It was 1931, and the hum of life in the Mexican neighborhood was interrupted by the shadow of law enforcement vehicles. Doors slammed. Uniformed officers approached homes, markets, and workplaces, asking for papers. Fear spread like wildfire. Families hurriedly packed their belongings, leaving behind not just possessions but years of dreams built on the promise of a better life.
For many, these memories—of raids, whispered warnings, and the fear of being torn away—have faded into history, eclipsed by time. Yet, these stories are woven into the fabric of American immigration policy, repeating in cycles that echo louder with each generation.
As a new administration promises the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history, the past stirs. Forgotten chapters of mass expulsions—like Mexican Repatriation during the Great Depression and Operation Wetback in the 1950s—return, hauntingly familiar. These moments reveal not just the mechanics of deportation but the enduring failure to address the forces that drive migration.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged that his mass deportation plan will be the “largest deportation operation in American history.” But the United States has carried out mass deportations before—and they failed to address the root causes of illegal immigration.
During the Great Depression, Mexican immigrants were forcibly deported in what became known as “Repatriation.” While supported by the federal government, the effort was largely driven by state and local authorities, often with the backing of private organizations. Nearly 2 million Mexican Americans were deported without due process (and an estimated 40 to 60% were U.S. citizens).
This era laid the groundwork for future cycles of mass immigration and deportation, a pattern that left the systemic issues of migration unresolved.
As the Trump administration prepares to enact the promised immigration policies, this chapter of American history offers lessons and warnings, reverberating especially loud today.
The Great Depression and “Voluntary” Repatriation
With soaring unemployment and over 2 million people unhoused, the economic strain of the Great Depression led many Americans to see immigrants as a strain on resources. Mexicans increasingly faced accusations of taking jobs that were needed by U.S. citizens, during which time President Herbert Hoover promoted initiatives promising “American jobs for real Americans.”
Local agencies began denying aid to immigrants, and officials proposed deporting those labeled as a “public charge.” Informal raids and sweeps targeted immigrant communities in major cities, not only in border states like California but also in places like Michigan and Illinois. By the mid-1930s, it’s estimated that more than a million Mexicans had been sent back to Mexico.
But this “Mexican repatriation” never became a full-scale deportation campaign. Ultimately, only about 80,000 Mexicans were formally deported, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Instead–Unsurprisingly, and certainly intentionally–U.S. immigration officers stoked fear through raids in major cities to pressure Mexicans to “repatriate”.
With a focus on immigrant communities in border states like California, as well as in places like Michigan and Illinois, they targeted businesses, homes, and hospitals. Unsurprisingly, and certainly intentional, rumors of the raids spread, stoking such fear among immigrants that they chose to leave "voluntarily". Across the country, it’s estimated that up to 60 percent of those forced to leave were actually American citizens.
Scapegoat 101: Dehumanize another
In reality, this was not a policy born of pragmatism; it was scapegoating dressed as relief, coercion disguised as assistance. In a time when unemployment soared and over 2 million people became unhoused, Mexican immigrants became the convenient villains in a story of economic collapse.
Convincing certain segments of the American public that immigrant labor was a threat to the nation was not hard, despite the fact that the economy depended on it.
“What Price Wetbacks?” was a pamphlet published in 1953 that circulated in Texas by the Texas Federation of Labor and the American GI Forum of Texas.
The pamphlet included the following description of those who engaged in illegal immigration.
Imported Colonialism: The Bracero Program
The US has a long history of not just actively recruiting/outsourcing immigrant labor but also of constructing and strengthening an economy that relied on it. With a backdrop of systemic discrimination, it’s a form of imported colonialism that perpetuates inequality.
The onset of World War II shifted attitudes. With many American men drafted, agricultural labor shortages spurred the creation of the Bracero Program in 1942. The US government promised the braceros that they would not be discriminated against this time around, that they would make the same as a US citizen worker, and that they would receive healthcare and housing while in the US.
The reality was far less equitable. Employers often ignored these promises, exploiting workers and creating segregated communities with limited rights. Still, the program brought in more than 200,000 workers annually, underpinning the U.S. economy while perpetuating systemic discrimination.The Bracero Program continued for more than 20 years.
Operation Wetback: The Show of Force
It’s known as the largest mass deportation in American history, and many view it as a model for Trump’s impending immigration plans.
Similar to the Mexican repatriation of the 30’s, the biggest impact of “Operation Wetback” was the fear it created. Largely a publicity stunt, governments used terror to scare people out of the country through roadblocks and raids covered in the press.
When the war ended and vets returned home to find that many of their jobs were now filled by Mexican immigrants, pressure mounted to address undocumented immigration. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower mounted a massive political campaign known ass Operation Wetback, an aggressive campaign led by Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). Due process was abandoned whilst border agents again raided private homes, businesses, and public spaces, demanding identification from those perceived to be of Mexican descent.
One of the campaign’s defining tactics was the fact that, to avoid reentry, authorities sent deportees deep into Mexico, far from their communities of origin and often without food, water, or means of communication.
While the U.S. government claimed 1.3 million deportations, historians estimate the actual number at 300,000–800,000, as many were deported multiple times. The operation disrupted lives but failed to address the systemic economic and social forces driving immigration.
The Road Ahead
Echoes of the past ring especially loudly in this political moment. Though the country is made up of them, talk of immigrants is too often accompanied by the same dehumanizing language used in pamphlets decades ago.
President-elect Donald Trump–whose bid for the White House has been dominated by his increasingly hardline anti-immigration rhetoric– has promised to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants on “Day One” in office.
"You look back in the 1950s, you look back at the Eisenhower administration, take a look at what they did, and it worked,” he said referring to Operation Wetback.
How he will do so remains to be seen, but one way would be by invoking a centuries-old law to expedite the removal of undocumented migrants from the U.S.
"I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil," he said at a recent rally in California, one of several in which he has brought it up.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows the federal government to expedite deportations of citizens, and Trump says he will use it to initiate a federal effort called "Operation Aurora" — named after the Colorado town that he claims has been taken over by Venezuelan gangs, which residents and local officials dispute — to target undocumented migrant gang members for arrest and deportation.
What We Have—or have not—Learned
However, no matter how many people an administration were to deport, or how the administration goes about it, history shows us that mass deportations fail to address the driving forces of immigration.
Operation Wetback did not solve illegal immigration. Though it took lives and stripped individuals of basic civil rights, it failed to address the fundamental forces driving migration. The pull of an economy that depends on cheap labor, imported colonialism, and the myriad hardships of civil unrest and economic stagnation in migrants' home countries were not resolved by mass deportations, and certainly speak to why people didn’t want to participate in the Bracero Program or other legal means of entry.
History has shown us that such attempts to forcefully remove people only paper over the deeper, structural issues. The root causes remain, unaddressed. As a second Trump term looms, the lessons of the past both offer and demand reflection. Immigration policy is not just a question of borders—it is a test of humanity, equity, and our capacity to learn from the past.
We learn from history that we do not learn from history - Fredrich Heighel