ThirstyFish

Sunset Park is a neighborhood in Brooklyn with a significant Mexican and Central American community. President Donald Trump's anti immigrant rhetoric and directives have stoked fear in immigrant communities across New York City and The United States. Even U.S. citizens of Mexican and Central American heritage fear the developments, and rightfully so.

Every time there is an economical downturn in the United States, Mexicans are blamed for "taking American jobs" and are labeled "criminals and rapists". During the Great Depression, between 1929 and 1936, federal and state authorities blamed Mexicans for the economic downturn and under what was called "The Mexican Repatriation" up to 2 million Mexicans were forcefull deported - of whom 60% were United States born citizens. Later, starting in 1954, the U.S. Government implemented another deportation program which they disgustingly labeled "Operation Wetback" where a few million Mexicans were deported - including numerous United States citizens who were not given a chance to prove their citizenship. Now we are in an another economic downturn and once again "Mexicans are the problem" - not banks, not greed, not corporations outsourcing jobs to cheap labor markets, not corrupt politicians...

President Obama, who took office as we entered the so-called Great Recession, deported more than 2.5 million people between 2009 and 2015 - more than any other president. President Trump promises to do more.

"Wetback" is a disparaging term applied to Mexicans who supposedly swam the Rio Grande to cross illegally into the U.S.