How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico | csmonitor.com — If you read this whole thing Ike saw illegal immigration as large scale corruption that was bad for America. Times changed. We are now officially a corrupt society.
Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, Americas southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond.
President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents – less than one-tenth of todays force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.
Although there is little to no record of this operation in Ikes official papers, one piece of historic evidence indicates how he felt. In 1951, Ike wrote a letter to Sen. William Fulbright D of Arkansas. The senator had just proposed that a special commission be created by Congress to examine unethical conduct by government officials who accepted gifts and favors in exchange for special treatment of private individuals.
40, those are actually good plans, and I agree with them. Though I would also say increase our importation of Legal Immigrants, you know those who are willing to obey the law, and do the right thing in order to come to this country, and not just rape us until we are of no further use to them.
The aspect of the article I find most interesting, which no one seems to have commented on yet, is how Eisenhower attempted to disrupt the “Good Old Boy” system. I really have no strong opinions one way or the other regarding illegal immigration, but I am all for eliminating government corruption and the favors system. I wish more politicians today would commit to upholding that kind of integrity.
23, But I am a humanist, and I can certainly see why the US is a sparkling gem compared to the countries where these people are coming from.
Absolutely. There’s a lot wrong with the USA but it’s *still* the best place in the world.
24, “Hell, go to Mexico illegaly and see what kind of welcome you get.”
Nailed it. Wouldn’t want to try it.
Thanks, guys !
#11 “yeah, poor defenseless latin american countries. Boo-hoo. Keep believing in fairy tales.”
Apart from naive; ignorant.
Go back to bashing an OS that you haven’t had a hands on experience.
44 C’mon Angel, lighten up. If people can’t whine and rage about The Other Guy’s operating system, what’s the point of having a computer?
Anyhow the real cost of illegal immigration is the tragedy of lost jobs. To see a heart-rending example from the Onion News Network (“The only news you need™”) see http://tinyurl.com/2rjnwt
#45
In certain matters I don’t take things lightly, I would be glad to see Pedro come down here and say that the US Goverment had nothing to do in the murders of thousands of people just because they were suspected to be socialists.
After all, down here during the cold war NOBODY killed people just because they were socialists unless it was to gain favours from the USA.
I’ll do it Angel. You really need to broaden your views. Grow up a litlle, intellectually speaking. But it’ll be later today, I’m already late for work. But in this subject, as in the one about the price of imported good in latin america, you’re missing the forest for the tree.
I’ll get to it later today.
#25, “Actually, it’s a LOT easier for an American to go visit another country than vice-versa. They love our money.”
Yup, it is a lot easier for Americans to VISIT other countries, but it’s a damn lot harder to become a legal resident over there than it is here.
And you bet they love our money. That’s what drives illegal immigration. Freedom? Liberty? Make the communities a better place? Pfft! They’re here for the money, period.
For the record, my father was a LEGAL immigrant and I’m married to a LEGAL immigrant. Based on my experience, I would suggest that those who go through the process LEGALLY are more likely to be assets to this country, since they’re ASKING for entry and are dedicated enough to go through the process. ILLEGALS on the other hand are essentially breaking and entering.
#47
From what country are you? Because if you live in Latinamerica you’ve been wearing pink glasses all your life.
I’m sure the tens of thousands of ppl killed here just for the suspicion of being commies would disagree with you. During the cold war the parents of a friend of mine had to hide in the mountains for almost a year just because their were part of a socialist movement when they were university students.
And BTW, we have the two biggest seaports in Central america, one in the caribbean coast and the other one in the pacific; the traffic of merchandise is so large an American customs agency is located on the one in the caribbean coast to speed up papework. SO THIS IS NOT ZIMBABWE.
Next time do your homework.
#49 I’ve made my homework long time ago, my friend.
So, risking the bore of all regular readers here, I’m goign to byte Angel’s bait and give him my 2 cents on both issues.
It is very nice to only see the intervention of one side in latin america: the US intervention. If you can call it that anyway.
Yeah, the CIA is a bitch. They use to kill people and the state department very likely had meetings about how things were getting a bit “uncomfrotable” in the back yard to plan both political & tactical strategies to counter what was going on.
But you know what? they could not have done that without the express consent of people in leading positions in those countries. You’re very naive if you think the US, be it thru the CIA or any special op’s, can get away with all that you think the US is guilty off all by themselves. Maybe once or twice, but not all you claim or suggest they did.
For an example on how wrong you are, I’m going to give you the counter example. It would be quite easy for me to blame cuba for what’s going on in kuzcoland. And they sure have enough merits and motives to be singled out as the ones behind a lot of the political and social problems currently going on there. But, you see, it’s not their fault. They may want to control the whole latin american continent (which they have tried to control for decades) but the ones to blame for kuzcoland problems are none other than its own citizens. Thanks to their actions (or lack thereof) is why that country is in so much trouble. Even if cuba were out of the picture, that country would still be having similar problems. It’s all about power and control. Screw the common citizen which in itself is at fault of their own fates thanks in much to ignorance and their belief of easy living.
And it’s very becoming of you taking notice and nagging about whatever US intervention has gone in latin america yet fail to see the much worse interventions that the soviet union thru cuba and now cuba alone have done in the past and keep doing in the region. Or do you conviniently forget that, for example, Salvador Allende in Chile was as sorrounded by as many cuban intelligence & military personnel than emperor kuzco has now or that daniel ortega had and is having again today?
This is not the first attempt that castro tried to invade kuzcoland. the difference then, and to bring some relation to this post, is that back then in the ’60 venezuelan military kicked mayor cuban and venezuelan-cuban-loving butt. Just like the US under Ike took a lot more care for their country, the venezuelan military back then had the clear vsion of what venezuela stood for and did their job of defending their country. Very unlike what’s happening today. As unlikely as what’s going on in the US today with illegal immigration.
Today and again thanks to traitors that are willing to give away their country for money and power, kuzcoland is a cuban province. And again, I do not blame cuba nor cubans, I blame venezuelans.
Please, next time see both sides of the street before crossing.
See, countries and companies and marriages (in short, any social interaction) is like a living creature. They are born, grow-up, mature, look for mates (civilized countries thru frienship and bonding -trade- and barbaric ones thru rape -invasions-) and die. The latin american region is a very immature teenager, who always looks to blame someone else for their faults and never wants to take responsibilities neither for their acts nor their duties. Societies like Europe and the US grew long ago and they realized that they only have themselves to blame if something goes wrong
And about death, do you think you’re the only one that knew or knows people being looked after for being what you call “socialist”? Give me a friggin’ break. Socialism is what Europe has, not what cuba has been selling all this years. Colombia has more than 40 years of guerrilla thanks to their military’s lack of efficiency and the ideological, monetary & supplies support from cuba. Wake-up man, you’re many decades late!
And about the price structure of imported goods, you’re leaving behind the long corruption line that the latin american goverments and the latin american themselves have behind all this. All the taxes they put on imports, the throwbacks that the importers and shipping companies want, the kickbacks the military present in those customs always want to let those nice looking things pass thru, et cetera, et cetera. Then, in the very end, comes the greed of the re-seller, the one you pointed out.
So, it looks to me that the one with a halfway thru homework is you. Whenever you feel you want to learn how the cuban government has their dirty hands in africa, let me know too. I can tell you a thing or two I KNOW about what goes on there.
To the entire blog and its editors, I apologize for this long post
#50, Pedro,
You have hinted at this before, but now you have openly declared how much you prefer to live under a fascist military dictatorship. Most people wouldn’t. As Angel pointed out, it is no fun to be carted off in the middle of the night just because of your political views.
It is explicit American support and training that keeps the right wing military and death squads going in Columbia and kept them going in the rest of the area. They provided the basis for the drug smuggling empire’s armies. How many have died in all of Latin America because of American involvement over the past 50 years?
Your “Kuzco” may not be a great guy. Most Americans think he is a little crazy. He has not killed or had others killed simply because their politics disagreed with his. Allende? Oh ya, that was a real bad ass dude. Geeze, he must have killed, aahh, how many was that, … NO ONE !!! Why was he elected? Maybe because he wanted to stop the enslavement of his people by the large American companies.
Pedro, you can complain about your President. I guarantee he is not as bad to live under as any of the military fascists that you so admire.
BTW, how many physicians has America sent to help care for the sick poor people in Venezuela?
#47, Angel, I sincerely hope things are better in Honduras today. Especially for you, your family, and loved ones.
#51 man, you surely have your facts mixed up.
Do you have any clue how many years there has been a democracy in venezuela? do you even know that the only person who has broken that democracy is the kuzco group?
FOr ages there has been disturbances in venezuela from radical lefties groups like the communist party. And all of the sudden, they disapeared like magic when kuzco went to power. How odd, huh?
We didn’t need ANY physicians. We would not have welcomed any physician from the US. There are enough medical doctors in venezuela (not those so-called cuban doctor who are just “health technitians” sent away to earn money for it beloved leader). So much so, that there are jobless venezuelan medical doctors which the government not only took the jobs away from them, but those that still work are getting pais less than a third than what kuzco pays cuba (not the doctors, mind you) for those so called doctors. Do you know how many patietns have died because of cuban malpraxis?
How can you guarantee nothing about a guy you barely start hearing about.
You’re dead wrong. Yes, he has killed others. He comanded troops whiel participating in a coup to a democratically elected president. He killed innocent bystanders that were close to where the coup. He sent a squad to the presidential residency (not the office), where the presidential family was (the president wasn’t there and they knew it) and that squad had the express goal of killing the president’s family. His goal (because he was not the coup leader) was to take the presidentail office building and kill the president in his office. He is so imcompetent, that he was the only officer who failed to secure its goal. He was found hiding under a desk in a military museum nearby, where he was directing the aqctions of his group (quite far from the action, mind you) and surrendered and pleaded for his life
Now, you can hear him cry everyday about how people want to kill him. Pathetic coward. Not to mention that he’s spewing that the cuban G2 tells him to say. Or do you think is coincidence that his is the same song fidel has been singing for the past 50 years?
Do me a favor, keep your uninformed opinions about that subject to yourself. Angel has a lot more weight behind his opinions, whatever they are, than your false naivete about kuzco. Whne you lose your hose or your job or have to flee the country because you nor your family have any future, then I’ll start considering your opinions on the matter. Read a little bit of history and then, maybe then, I’ll hear what you have to say.
Oh, about Allende, why was he so close to the ussr? why was he so entangled with the kgb? I’m sorry pal, but he was just a pawn in the cold war. Even more in my faovr that latin american countries do not have their own identity and don’t plan on having one in the near future. He chose to ally himself with the iron curtain. And it fell on him.
pedro – the result of your own beliefs, I hesitate to call them an ideology, is eventually you end up right where you are, now.
It was Cold Warriors who said it was OK to overthrow a democratically-elected government in Chile and murder Allende – what has that gained the US over time?
It was Cold Warriors who said it was OK to overthrow a democratically-elected government in Iran and put the Shah back in power – what has that gained the US [or any other Western nation] over time?
If you support the politics of imperial governments that say it’s OK to remove governments that disagree with us by force you’re going to end up holding the same trick bag all imperial powers have, from Rome to England.
#54 I never said it was ok to overthrow a democratic elected governemt. I just stated, in the case of chile, that Allende fell as a pawn of the cold war. Both the US and the Russians played that country. Allende decided to get into that game (he was part of the communist movement in chile). He got into a fight latin american knew really very little about. It was fashionable to be reactionary without even knowing what the hell was that.
Everybody screaming about the fight for the people when in reality they were being told fairy tales about how glorious the soviet union was and we all know those were just lies. Regular latin american asshole rulers that think about themselves. He got into a mess he didn’t understand and got burned.
What happened next in chile was a disgrace. Venezuela received thousands Chileans running away from pinochet’s dictatorship. Those depressing fottbal field massacres will taint chile forever.
It was a natural chain of events. To fight the extrem left, you need extreme right. And vice versa. That’s why extremes are so dangerous. One breeds the other.
And latin america keeps repeating the same mistakes. Over and over. Waiting for that mesiah that will bring them good life. Like magic. There’s no work, nor sacrifice, nor responsibilities. Just big daddy states that will make houses for us and give us money so we can drink up until we barf thru the noses. I don;t care if I have to hail my master, I gotta do something for that money, right? it’s even nice to hail the emperor because they give us a lot of booze to keep us happy while the comander decides to arrive. He has to do it that way, you know? the CIA wants to kill him.
Bah, grow up already!
And please, once and for all, stop that idiotic “the imperialistic US” line. It is really old. Besides what can be more imperialistic, the acts of a nation that every 4 years changes presidents from different parties, with a congress also periodically elected with changing members or one where the beloved comandante has 50+ years doing the same shit and the “congress” has people that come from the only party allowed to legally exist in the country?
#50
Some people say a lot and end up saying nothing.
How convenient for you to omit the Iran-Contra scandal. I’m sure many American readers are familiar with it.
Down here the CIA did their work and they did it quite well, after all; “thanks” to it this is the only Central American Nation that didn’t developed a a civil war and explains my polarised attitude.
If there’s one thing I agree with you is that latin american Socialism is everything but socialism; it’s more of an excuse for a totalitarian regime.