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An aerial view of the International Bridge over the in Rio Grande, Laredo, Texas.
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The Image of Control

Following the careers of a family of especially corrupt border control officials.
by John Weber via HNN on June 11, 2024
Border patrol agents in a physical training.

From Suspect to Perpetrato

How history shaped the modern U.S. Border Patrol agent.
by Ernesto Chávez, Ervin A. Zubiate-Rocha via Public Books on June 5, 2024

Border Patrol - Our Oral History

A compilation of interviews with former U.S. Border Patrol officers who served from the 1930s-1960s.
via Border Patrol Museum on May 16, 1987
Street sign for Emancipation Ave.

The Border Patrol and Asylum Exclusion

Border Patrol has abused its authority and mistreated migrants in countless ways. Yet its role as the frontline force in asylum exclusion has only grown.
by S. Deborah Kang via Public Books on May 30, 2024
Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during confirmation hearing
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The DHS Secretary Could Chart a New Path on Immigration. Will He?

Alejandro Mayorkas and the limits of liberal law-and-order immigration politics.
by Adam Goodman via Made By History on February 2, 2021

When the Frontier Becomes the Wall

What the border fight means for one of the nation’s most potent, and most violent, myths.
by Francisco Cantú via The New Yorker on March 4, 2019

How Violent American Vigilantes at the Border Led to Trump’s Wall

From the 80s onwards, the borderlands were rife with paramilitary cruelty and racism. But the president’s rhetoric has thrown fuel on the fire.
by Greg Grandin via The Guardian on February 28, 2019

The Border Patrol has Been a Cult of Brutality Since 1924

The U.S. needs a historical reckoning with the true cause of the border crisis: the long, brutal history of border enforcement itself.
by Greg Grandin via The Intercept on January 12, 2019

Washington Trained Guatemala’s Mass Murderers—and the Border Patrol Played a Role

Now two Guatemalan children have died under Border Patrol custody. But the agency’s role in Latin American oppression has a long history.
by Greg Grandin, Elizabeth Oglesby via The Nation on January 3, 2019
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A Bullet Can Cross the Border. Can the Constitution? The Supreme Court Won’t Say.

The Supreme Court punts on Hernandez v. Mesa, leaving the Constitution lost in the borderlands.
by Sarah A. Seo via Made By History on June 27, 2017
Migrant walking down a road.

Los Angeles’ 1936 ‘Bum Blockade’ Targeted American Migrants Fleeing Hardship During the Depression

The two-month patrol stopped “suspicious” individuals from crossing into California. But its execution was uneven, and the initiative proved controversial.
by Olatunji Osho-Williams via Smithsonian Magazine on July 24, 2025
US and Mexican immigrant rights activists march through the Arizona desert to draw attention to unjust immigration policies.

What the Birth of the Sanctuary Movement Teaches Us Today

The birth of the sanctuary movement some 45 years ago can teach us a lot about how to respond to today’s attacks on immigrants.
by Kyle Paoletta via The Nation on April 10, 2025
William Hanson with Brigadier General Jacob Walters and Texas Rangers in Longview in 1919.

The Banality of Border Evil

What a long-dead, cartoonishly corrupt Texas bureaucrat can tell us about the nature of immigration enforcement and the U.S.-Mexico divide.
by Gus Bova via Texas Observer on July 23, 2024
An electrified barbed-wire fence around Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tex., near the Mexican border, in 1915 or 1916.

The Long, Ugly History of Barbed Wire at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The first barbed wire border fences were proposed to keep out Chinese migrants. They’ve been debated for over a century.
by David Dorado Romo via Retropolis on December 9, 2023
A Mexican family stands next to the border wall between Mexico and the United States, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on May 23, 2017.
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America’s Border Wall Is Bipartisan

Biden continues a tradition of building fences at the US-Mexico border that long precedes Donald Trump.
by Mary Mendoza via Made By History on October 30, 2023
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake holds a news conference as she tours the U.S.-Mexico border on Nov. 4 in Sierra Vista, Ariz.
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Cochise County Didn’t Used To Be the Land Of Far Right Stunts

How the rural Arizona border county embodies the political shift in much of America.
by Katherine Benton-Cohen via Made By History on December 2, 2022
A picture of armed militias

What the Term “Gun Culture” Misses About White Supremacy

The rise of tactical gun culture among civilians reveals a new front in the U.S. battle against nativist authoritarianism.
by Chad Kautzer via Boston Review on December 17, 2021
A border sign

Borders Don’t Stop Violence—They Create It

The “border” is not a line on the ground, but a tool that enables violence and surveillance.
by Karl Jacoby, Monica Muñoz Martinez via Public Books on July 7, 2021

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

A conversation between a historian and the creator of a new documentary short about NRA leader Harlon Carter.
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Sierra Pettengill via Boston Review on May 7, 2021

Imperial Wars Always Come Home

All empires fall. When they do, the violence and terror they’ve wrought on others has a way of coming back around.
by Patrick Wyman via Perspectives: Past, Present, And Future on July 24, 2020

How the U.S. Weaponized the Border Wall

The borderlands have “been transformed into a vast graveyard of the missing.”
by Greg Grandin via The Intercept on February 10, 2019
Border patrol guarding a group of men sitting on the ground.

The Long History of Deportation Scare Tactics at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The precedents for Trump’s hyped-up immigration crackdown.
by Kelly Lytle Hernández, Cora Currier via The Intercept on February 26, 2017

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