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U.S. Border Patrol

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Paso del Norte International Bridge.

On the Edges of Fascism and Other Unsettling Possibilities

The legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the launching of the Border Patrol, which inaugurated the most restrictive era of US immigration until our own.
by Gilberto Rosas via Public Books on June 3, 2024
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
Oscar Andrade prays at the Ironwood Forest National Monument near Marana, Ariz., before searching for a missing Honduran migrant, in September.
partner

Border Enforcement Has Been Deadly By Design

The Biden administration’s expanded use of Title 42 to expel asylum seekers will take a toll.
by Joel Zapata via Made By History on January 20, 2023

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
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

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
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
Mexican immigrants huddled in a cage during Operation Wetback.

Trump's Deportation Model

A 1950s mass deportation campaign shows that abuse and dehumanization are intrinsic to immigrant detention.
by Ana Raquel Minian via Dissent on October 31, 2024
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 aerial view of the International Bridge over the in Rio Grande, Laredo, Texas.
partner

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
Street vendors at the border crossing in Tijuana, 2006.

Fortifying the U.S.-Mexico Boundary

The 1993 “Hold the Line” experiment.
by Justin I. Salgado via Origins on June 8, 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
Three immigrants with chained hands and feet ascending staircase to a plane to be deported.

America’s Medicalized Borders: Past, Present, and Possible Future

Undoing the politics of fear will require us to reckon with the legacies of nativism that divert our attention from the greatest threats to our health.
by Carlos Martinez via Public Books on May 29, 2024
Two people hold signs protesting the expulsion of Haitian refugees.
partner

Violence and Racism Against Haitian Migrants Was Never Limited to Agents on Horseback

American immigration policy towards Haitians has been cruel for decades.
by Carl Lindskoog via Made By History on September 30, 2021
Demonstrators supporting immigration reform.
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Avoiding Past Mistakes is Key to Congress Passing Immigration Reform That Works

Updating the Registry Act and uncoupling legalization from punitive measures could be first steps.
by Elizabeth F. Cohen via Made By History on September 30, 2021
Fort Huachuca in 1894.

The American Maginot Line (Pt. 2)

Exploring the history of U.S. empire through the story of Fort Huachuca – the “Guardian of the Frontier.”
by Alex Aviña via Foreign Exchanges on September 27, 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
A Border Patrol agent stands by an opening in the U.S. Mexico Border wall.
partner

Trump’s Border Wall Belongs to Biden Now

A border policy divorced from history can’t do what policymakers want.
by Kevan Q. Malone via Made By History on April 11, 2021
Artwork depicting The Statue of Liberty's back.

America Never Wanted the Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses

The U.S. is a diverse nation of immigrants—but it was not intended to be, and its historical biases continue to haunt the present.
by Caitlin Dickerson via The Atlantic on April 5, 2021
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
Chinese immigrants arrested in New Jersey in November 1934. One is smiling, all look disheveled.

An Explosive Government Report Exposed Family Separations and Other Immigration Horrors—in 1931

Lessons about “dark age cruelty” and the limits of reformism from 90 years ago.
by Noah Lanard via Mother Jones on October 27, 2020
Armed troops wearing gas masks walk through tear gas at Black Lives Matter protest.
partner

The Extraordinary Scene Unfolding in Portland Has a Disturbing History

How immigration enforcement and policing became entwined
by Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez via Made By History on July 19, 2020
partner

For 25 Years, Operation Gatekeeper Has Made Life Worse for Border Communities

The policy of "prevention through deterrence" has been deadly.
by Pedro Rios via Made By History on October 1, 2019

Immigration Enforcement and the U.S.-Mexico Border

A microsyllabus on the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, refugees, and deportation.
by Adam Goodman, Maddalena Marinari, Evan Tarapata, María Cristina García via The Abusable Past on September 11, 2019

The Bloody History of Border Militias Runs Deep — and Law Enforcement Is Part of It

The West's history is full of stories of white Americans taking the law into their own hands to beat back nonwhite populations.
by Ryan Deveraux via The Intercept on May 23, 2019

Necessary to the Security of a Free State

On the history of the second amendment, white militias, and border vigilantism.
by Angelo Guisado via Current Affairs on May 8, 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

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

How Not to Build a “Great, Great Wall”

A timeline of border fortification, from 1945 to the Trump Era.
by Greg Grandin via Tom Dispatch on January 13, 2019
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