Bisbee Deportation
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On 12 July 1917, the Phelps Dodge Corporation deported 1,185 men from the town of Bisbee, Arizona. The company accused them of being members of the Industrial Workers of the World, a radical trade union. However, many of those who were deported were not Wobblies, as IWW members were referred to. In fact, some of those deported were not even on strike.[1]
On the morning of the 12th, 2,000 men from the Citizens Protective League and Workers Loyalty League, both pro-owner, anti-union groups, gathered in Bisbee and rounded up over 1,000 men, many of whom were not on strike. Men who refused to go back to work were put on boxcars and escorted by armed guards to Hermanas, New Mexico where they were left without any food or water. Two days later the army arrived and took the men to Columbus, New Mexico where a camp was prepared for them.
