Trump touts program with dark history as deportation model
Republican presidential contender Donald Trump often touts the efforts of the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s, as proof that he could deport the estimated 11 million people living in the US illegally.
But the program Trump is referring to is viewed by historians as a dark moment in America's past. The complicated undertaking was plagued by deaths and poor conditions for those immigrants apprehended.
Also lost in Trump's telling is that "Operation Wetback" coincided with a guest worker program that provided legal status to hundreds of thousands of largely Mexican farm workers.
Several of Trump's rivals have criticized Trump's plan as unrealistic and inhumane, arguing that it would tear apart families.
