The reality of "Operation *******" wasn't so simple. Eisenhower's sweep was effective because it was mass deportation on the Soviet model, not because it was admirable, let alone fair or, in thousands of cases, legal. Mexicans were especially targeted whether they were legal immigrants or not. Children of Mexican parents, who were American citizens for having been born on American soil, were deported, too. We just learned that Americans by the thousands (and their children) are being denied Medicaid benefits because they can't produce proof of citizenship under a new law designed to target illegal immigrants. Imagine how many Mexicans were wrongly targeted for deportation in the mid-1950s.
"Operation *******": Illegal Immigration's Golden-Crisp Myth | Common Dreams