Donald Trump has been on a roll this campaign season. First, he called Mexican immigrants “drug dealers” and “rapists” in his announcement speech. Then he proposed that Mexico pay for a wall along the US-Mexico border and called for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Finally, in the third 2016 presidential debate, Donald Trump proposed the return of Eisenhower’s "Operation Wetback."

Let’s be clear, Donald Trump has never been a friend to the Latino community here in the United States; however, this absurd proposal is enough.

We can no longer allow this man to run amok in our country without strong and definitive condemnation for his egregious policy positions.

"Operation Wetback"

"Operation Wetback" was instituted in 1955 by President Eisenhower. While it is difficult to get exact numbers, it is clear that hundreds of thousands of people and their families were thrown out of America.

There is significant, documented abuse of Mexican migrants during and after their deportation. At one point, U.S. Border Patrol was ordered to shoot anyone attempting to enter the country pointblank.

“At around the same time, patrol officers in Texas and California established “a little barbershop for chronic offenders” at their detention centers, shaving the heads of migrants so they would be easily recognizable if they tried to come across the border a second or third time. When Chief Patrol Inspector Fletcher Rawls deemed this practice a violation of the detainees’ civil rights, the U.S. Border Patrol encouraged Mexican offers to take up the “clipping” in their stead.” (Washington Post, 11/11/15)

To make matters worse, evidence suggests that these tactics did not even work. What was successful was an effort to legalize temporary farm workers through the Bracero and H-2 Visa Programs.

What is more, the program was so prohibitively expensive, it shut down after a year.

"Operation Wetback" was inhumane, ineffective, and irresponsible.

And now, Donald Trump wants to bring it back.

Please take a stand with us against Trump’s dangerous plans.

We, the undersigned, demand that ALL candidates for the Republican nomination for President denounce Trump’s immigration policy for the good of their party, country, and collective conscience.