Wetback (1944)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

What does HDAS have for "wetback"? Newspaperarchive seems to have it in  
Texas newspapers from 1944.
...
...
(OED)
wetback orig. and  chiefly U.S., an illegal immigrant who crossed the Rio 
Grande from Mexico  to the U.S.; also attrib. and transf.; 
1929 Foreign Affairs Oct. 101 The  peon walks or swims across..and is 
welcomed by his countrymen here as a ‘*wet  back’. 1972  Observer (Colour Suppl.) 28 
May 28/1 Last year in California alone, border patrols turned back 27,000  
wetbacks (the contemptuous name derives from their practice of swimming the Rio  
Grande to reach the US). 1978  N.Y. Times Mag. 23 July 23/2  Wetbacks (a 
derogation of Mexicans swimming the Rio Grande to  slip into the U.S.) became 
illegal aliens, and are now referred to as  undocumented persons. 
...
...
21 June 1944, <i>Valley Morning Star</i> (Harlingen, TX), pg.  2:   
One such incident occurred at McAllen Monday, officers said, when a group  of 
about forty "wetbacks" presented themselves to the authorities and asked to  
be sent back across the border.
...
...
23 June 1944, <i>Valley Morning Star</i> (Harlingen, TX), pg.  4:
Regarding the deportation of the thousands of wetbacks from the Rio Grande  
Valley district I think it's the best thing that could be done for both labor  
and capital of American, because it should cause the "New Deal" to establish 
its  largess programs which harbor and maintain many citizens in semi-idleness 
while  our producers have to seek this cheaper foreign labor in order to 
continue in  business.
...
...
9 March 1947, Los Angeles <i>Times</i>, pg. 7:
WASHINGTON, March 8. (AP) -- California Congressmen today urged the  
Immigration Service to be lenient with Mexican "wetbacks" pending ratification  of a 
new contract with Mexico for the importation of farm workers. "Wetbacks"  are 
those Mexicans who enter the United States illegally, presumably by swimming  
the Rio Grande.
 
4 April 1948, Washington <i>Post</i>, "'Wetback' Play a Losing  Game," pg. B8:
The base-line of the game in Texas is the Rio Grande, which forms a  
1000-mile border between El Paso and Brownsville. Some of the hiders swim or  wade the 
shallow, narrow river. Because of that, all illegal Mexican immigrants  have 
come to be known as "wetbacks."
...
...
3 March 1951, Chicago <i>Daily Tribune</i>, pg. 7:
A "flying squad" of the AFL National Farm labor union today forced the  
deportation of 115 "wetback" Mexican farm laborers [illegal entrants] just as  
their presence in the United States, according to union officers, was being  
legitimized in an unlawful processing operation.
...
...
...
(GOOGLE BOOKS)
_Swedish Unemployment Policy - 1914 to 1940 - Page  139_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=0n6j2tasRhvnimbk5o&id=tuepRsu5GKcC&q=wetbacks&dq=wetbacks&ie=ISO
-8859-1) 
by Harrison  Clark - 1941
The Tragedy of the  Wetbacks THERE is a great deal of feeling in California 
...  
Apparently the big farmers do not do much about the deportation of  Wetbacks.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org