Border Patrol Turns 100

The U.S. Border Patrol turned 100 years old on May 28.  Here is a brief summary from the U.S. government as it celebrates the centennial anniversary of the Border Patrol.  

The American Immigration Council (as does this article from Mother Jones) has a slightly different slant:

“The Border Patrol’s centennial provides an opportunity to shed light on the agency’s lack of accountability and to pursue a vision for border communities that is grounded in dignity and human rights.

The Border Patrol was founded in 1924, as part of the same restrictive immigration legislation enacted widespread national origin quotas for the first time. That law, the Johnson-Reed Act, excluded immigrants from Asian countries almost entirely and limited the number of new immigrants to the populations that were present in the United States at the time of the 1890 census—a tactic to exclude Eastern and Southern European immigrants, grounded in deep anti-Semitism. While the law did not directly restrict immigration from the Western Hemisphere, it included funding for the Border Patrol to control the movement of Mexicans into the United States while accommodating West Texas ranchers’ need for labor.

The U.S. government’s first attempt at federal border control followed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Mounted Guard of Chinese Inspectors patrolled the northern and southern borders to apprehend any unauthorized Chinese immigrants from entering the United States.

But the Border Patrol’s roots can be traced back further, to the Texas Rangers—the law enforcement agency that perpetuated racist and xenophobic violence to keep enslaved Black people from leaving and to exclude Mexican and indigenous people from entering the country. Many of the earliest Border Patrol agents were former Rangers and the culture of racialized policing of the border remained. Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) has documented the history of Border Patrol’s abuses in the borderlands, including its integral role in `Operation Wetback,’ where it engaged in military style raids to violently deport over 1 million workers, including U.S. citizens, to Mexico.

The current Border Patrol is a subagency of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),”

Kelly Lytle Hernandez has a wonderful history of the Border Patrol.  Her book Migra ! The History of the Border Patrol/ “Focusing on the daily challenges of policing the Mexican border and bringing to light unexpected partners and forgotten dynamics, Migra! reveals how the U.S. Border Patrol translated the mandate for comprehensive migration control into a project of policing immigrants and undocumented `liens’ in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.”

KJ