During the fourth Republican debate on Tuesday night in Milwaukee, the presidential contenders’ stats, facts, and spirited attacks came thick and fast.
So much so that it became tough, at times, to know what was true, false, or highly exaggerated.
Two issues, in particular, which popped up during the debate-caught my attention: immigration and vocational education.
1.) Dwight D. Eisenhower (``I like Ike’’) deports 1.5 million illegal aliens.
American real estate mogul, television personality and presidential hopeful Donald Trump, hoping to make a strong case for the deportation of some 11 million undocumented workers in this country if he becomes president, cited the efforts of the amicable Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, according to Mr. Trump, moved 1.5 million out of this country while in the White House.
Whether those figures are correct or not (some historians believe those figures to be inflated-more on that later) what Mr. Trump didn’t reveal was the name of the initiative executed by President Eisenhower.
It was called ``Operation Wetback’’, when In July 1954, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) repatriated illegal immigrants with a particular focus on illegal Mexican immigrants.
Just the term ``wetback’’ is a problem for many in this country, even today. Wetback was intended to be a race-neutral term, but it was in reality a racial epithet used by government officials and whites for law-breaking Mexican border crossers. ``Wetbacks’’ refers to those who swam the Rio Grande in order to enter the United States.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines ``wetback'' as a ``disparaging term for a Mexican, especially a laborer who crosses the U.S. border illegally.''
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, moreover, considers ``wetback'' among the very worst of racial epithets.
From the U.S. government’s perspective at the time, Operation Wetback was considered a booming success in that it forced 1.3 million illegal aliens to leave the United States, either by deporting them directly or by making them so afraid-they would flee the country.
But for its opponents, Operation Wetback represented a gross violation of human and civil rights-and most damaging of all-ignited a poisonous atmosphere of confrontation between illegal immigrants and U.S. government officials which remain with us today.
Many have cast doubt on the figure often cited by government officials that they deported as many as 1.3 million to 1.5 million undocumented workers.
Juan Garcia, in the history department at the University of Arizona, says his research has proved ``the operation was made to appear successful through the use of a well planned publicity campaign by the Border Patrol and the INS. ‘’ ``In fact’’, Garcia argues, `` the number of undocumented people who were deported or self-repatriated was inflated to make the operation appear to be successful.’’
Professor Garcia additionally points out that operation didn’t meet with a great deal of public outcry at the time, only because the media gatekeepers and government officials ``fanned anti-immigrant sentiments’’ by widely publicizing the danger that "illegals" posed to the U.S. ``All this came’’, Professor Garcia contends, `` during the height of Cold War tensions and McCarthyism.’’
The few civil rights activists objecting to the roundups didn’t make much of an impact.
Richard Delgado, who teaches civil rights and critical race theory at University of Alabama School of Law, considers Operation Wetback to be one of the most shameful forced mass-movements of people in recent U.S. history. `` It stands in infamy along with the Trail of Tears (Indian removal from Georgia to Oklahoma) and the wartime internment of the Japanese. ‘’
``Authorities scooped up Mexican-looking people whenever they came across them’’ Delgado said. ``They weren't too choosy. Many were American citizens who had lived here all their lives.’’
2.) Vocational Training: More Welders, Less Philosophers
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Tuesday night during the Republican debate in Milwaukee that ``welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.''
The first part of the sentence has proved not to be true.
According to government statistics, the median wage for welders is $37,420, while the median wage for philosophy professors is $63,630.
But as a U.S. Labor Department spokesperson pointed out, there isn’t a standard occupational classification for philosophers as a general category, just a classification for postsecondary teachers of religion and philosophy.
On the second part of Mr. Rubio’s sentence, his push for more welders in this country, packed a punch.
The State of the Welding Industry Report Executive Summary developed by the National Center for Welding Education and Training reports a need for 240,000 additional welders between 2009 and 2019.
That number is projected to grow to 340,000 by the year 2024.
In addition, according to David J. Landon, president of the American Welding Society (AWS), ``there are a little over a million jobs that require welding as a skill. The annual need is a little over 40,000 new welders just to keep up with growth and attrition.’’
Duncan Estep, director for the National Center for Welding Education and Training in Elyria, Ohio, argues the ``need for qualified welders is being exacerbated by Baby boomers retiring, the return of manufacturers to the US, the explosive growth in the energy sectors and the renewal of the aging infrastructure.’’
Estep says it isn’t unusual for him to hear manufacturers tell him that they just finished interviewing 40 people who claim to be able to weld, only to find 4 qualified welders.
In an ironic twist to the debate in Milwaukee Tuesday night, Estep found it fascinating to observe that ``Mr. Rubio’s office is located in the building that is owned and occupied by the American Welding Society and is across the street from Donald Trump’s golf course, just outside of Miami.’’
As a ringing endorsement that this country still needs its philosophers, Jacob Rosen, assistant professor of Philosophy at Harvard University reminds me that ``Plato thought that philosophy was the most valuable occupation possible for a human, and he made philosophers rule his ideal society in the Republic, but he also made them far outnumbered by smiths.''
Taken together, Professor Rosen believes it’s mighty important for the U.S. to have both good philosophers and good welders ``in whatever numbers are appropriate to meet people's intellectual, spiritual, and material needs.''
Well said!
-Bill Lucey
November 13, 2015
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