Exhibition Uncovers Historical Photos From a Century of US Deportation Campaigns

Undocumented immigrants board bus for deportation to Mexico. Los Angeles, California, 1949 | Image credit: Larry Sharkey/Los Angeles Times Archive/UCLA

A new exhibition chronicles photographs showing a century-long history of U.S. enforcement campaigns that targeted Mexican immigrants and American citizens alike.

The California Museum in Sacramento has opened Help Wanted / Leave Now: “Operation Wetback” & the Revolving Door of Mass Deportation, which explores photographs documenting the experiences of Mexican workers and their families amid decades of recruitment, deportation, and changing U.S. immigration policies.

Deported Mexican nationals board train to Mexico’s interior, Nogales, 1954 | Image credit: Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times Archive/UCLA

Detainees are incarcerated prior to deportation in El Centro, California in 1954. | Image credit: Larry Sharkey/L.A. Times Archive/UCLA Special Collections

The exhibition opened to the public on August 13, following the 72nd anniversary of “Operation Wetback,” one of the largest mass deportation campaigns in U.S. history. It examines a pattern in which Mexican workers were recruited to support American industries but could later face mass removal during periods of economic and political pressure.

A farm worker family at substandard field housing. Imperial Valley, California, 1937 | Image credit: Dorothea Lange/Library of Congress

A cotton picker in the San Joaquin Valley in California in 1936. | Image credit: Dorothea Lange/ Library of Congress

A young farm worker carries water in a beet field. East Grand Forks, Minnesota, 1937 | Image credit: Russell Lee/Library of Congress

The exhibition focuses in particular on the coerced emigration of the 1930s and the Eisenhower-era “Operation Wetback” campaign. It examines how Mexicans, historically the largest Latino immigrant group in the United States, were repeatedly recruited to work in the country without access to citizenship before hundreds of thousands were expelled.

“Help Wanted / Leave Now tells the story of repeated mass recruitment and betrayal,” Dolores Huerta, labor and civil rights leader and member of the exhibit’s advisory council, says in a statement. “The United States has a history of recruiting people to come here in times of need or crisis and then deporting and maligning them in times of political convenience. It’s a constant cycle of hypocrisy, and the story needs to be told: immigrants built the economy in the United States, and people must not forget that.”

Bracero Program applicants line up for vaccines in Mexico City in 1942. | Image credit: Howard Rosenberg, Ag Personnel Management Program, UC Berkeley Labor Management Decisions (1993), UC Agriculture and Natural

Bracero Program applicants line up for chest x-rays. Mexico City, 1942 | Image credit: Howard Rosenberg, Ag Personnel Management Program, UC Berkeley Labor Management Decisions (1993), UC Agriculture and Natural Resources

Beetworkers pose in fields near Stockton, California, in May, 1943. | Marjory Collins/Library of Congress

Railroad workers Trinidad Gutierrez (L) and Molly Alcanto (R), San Bernardino, California, 1943 | Image credit: Jack Delano/Library of Congress

Through firsthand accounts and photographs, Help Wanted / Leave Now explores themes including belonging, memory, and resistance. The exhibition connects historical deportation campaigns with what the museum describes as an ongoing cycle of recruitment and removal. The exhibition also highlights the contributions and cultural legacy of Latino communities whose labor has played a significant role in the growth of the U.S. economy.

Help Wanted / Leave Now: “Operation Wetback” & the Revolving Door of Mass Deportation at the California Museum in Sacramento will be on view through January 10, 2027.