History of Border Patrol (Part 5)

0:10 Hi, everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is a Studia's Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history. Sometimes it's horrible and deals with Harry topics like racism, corruption, genocide, but more than that, it's also bout resistance, power and community. And today we are doing our last part of the history of Border Patrol. Wow, last part already. It's been a long journey, it has. Yeah, Okay. Last week we talked about the Border Patrol growing as a federal organization, the changes brought on by new recruits, including the coural methods of pushing migrants into more remote and dangerous ways of crossing the border, collaboration between US and Mexico and policing Mexican migrants, and the breast of the program. And today we'll get into a little bit of this, a little bit of that, okay, some of the same stuff, a little bit of what and what all around changes like that came to the Border Patrol lot towards and the creation of DHS or no, not really, oh okay, I mean it just that's where the book ends because it's more that's more recent. M Yeah, okay, So, like we mentioned last week, there was a rise in unauthorized immigration during the Bresila program, mainly Mexican males who were ineligible for the program and the wives and children of the brasselos who were eligible for the program. And to police this, the United States and Mexico partnered more than ever before. They worked together to deport migrants to

1:43 inland Mexico using different methods like air and bus lifts, basically using planes, buses, and trains to take migrants inland after the United States Ports Patrol would exchange custody as migrants to the Mexican immigration enforcement. Mexican agricultural businessmen were especially really interested in strengthening the border because they were losing their labor force to the United States. Oh yeah, it was in their interests. In Mexicali and Watamoros, agricultural businessmen were calling for the military to be placed along the border to prevent unsanctioned immigration. Generally, the Mexican government left the migration enforcement to the US, but this changed on the weekend of October sixteenth to the seventeenth in nineteen forty eight, when thousands of Mexican migrants stormed the border at Elbaso. So This was the invasion that they were actually worried about. Oh, so there's precedent to this.

2:42 So what happened was there was a tensions that had been escalating between the United States and Mexico because officials from both countries had been arguing about the minimum wage that would be offered to rasseerros, with the United States, of course, wanting to pay less and Mexico asking for higher wages, and they weren't coming to any kind of agreement. And there were already a lot of baraceto hopefuls waiting into the Laquatas, waiting to see they would be allowed into the US. And I'm not sure how long they were waiting for, like how long this went on for, But the resources of the brasselos were dwindling and their desperation grew, and on October sixteenth and escalated, and it estimated four thousand migrants rushed the border. Oh wow, this makes me think of the caravans. Yeah. After that weekend, the Mexican government temporarily ended the Betaseta program until an agreement on the wages could be reached with the United States, and they placed the military at the border to prevent border crossings. Then, in July nineteen forty nine, the Mexican government declared a national emergency because cut farmers in the De Nosa and Matamotos region were facing a labor shortage, and that month, five thousand Mexican soldiers patrolled the United States and Mexico border and engaged in emigration enforcement, detaining migrants until the migrants accepted labor contracts with the Mexican

4:12 cotton growers. Oh so they forced them to work and stay in Mexico like forced labor. Essentially that that is not a good look. No, not at all. And the Mexican Agricultural Bank supported the military's efforts and actively encouraged the use of forced labor. And while government officials denied courcing migrants to work for Mexican cotton growers, journalists published interviews of migrants supporting they were being sold like slaves. Oh my god. Yeah, soldiers were threatening migrants with gel unless they accepted working for Mexican growers. And there were even rumors that soldiers were shooting at migrants along the border.

4:56 Oh and I mean there's I didn't see about that being verified, but rumors aside. The Mexican military and law enforcement were enforcing a nineteen forty seven law that established a two to five year imprisonment and a fine of up to ten thousand vessels for anyone who attempted to take Mexican citizens out of Mexico without proper authorization. Even though they were taking themselves out right, no one was taking them out right. So this was something that was aimed at coyotes more, but it was being at this instance, it was being used against migrants, okay. And after this, the Mexican military claimed to have stopped all illegal immigration in the area, and things stayed that way, with the Mexican government enforcing emmigration on their side of the border until Mexico and the United States reached a new agreement on the best set of program But issues arose again in nineteen fifty two and nineteen fifty three, at which point Mexico finally created their own board patrol instead of continuing to place the military at the border. Oh and the establishment of Mexico's own Bard patrol opened up even more opportunities for partnership and collaboration between the US and Mexico and police immigrants. So it's really ramped up the partnership.

6:16 They became two peas in a pod PEB and J cafe Suka. Yeah, I'll stop, Yeah, yeah, shut up now. Chief Patrol Inspector Fletcher Rawls. He once described as Mexican counterpart captain of the Mexico Border Patrol Alberto Moreno, saying, quote, he's tearing up boats by the bunches, I think, shooting up a few, and is cooperating with us. Very good. We can keep this man over there, and he continues to receive the backing from Mexico City. He is going to be a big help for us. Ewn. Yeah, what's his name, the Mexican bar Patrol? Yeah, yeah, alvererto Moreno, fuck alt for real. This partnership allowed the United States to extend its policing of Mexican migrants past the borders of the United States. It also allowed the United States to offload the more crol techniques or tactics to the Mexican Border Patrol to like do our dirty work for us. Yes. Yes.

7:29 One example of this is head shaving. By the late nineteen forties, most migrants that crossed the border did so repeatedly, and border patrol agents were getting frustrated seeing the same faces over and over again, sometimes even the same day, just goes to show how bad they are at the job, though, which is fine by me. Yeah. Same. In the early nineteen fifties, Border Patrol Inspector Bob Salinger, who was in charge of the mission station in Texas, was fed up, so he asked that agents carry clippers with them to shave the heads of chronic offenders. He instructed his agents to not process these migrants who had been taking to the border patrol barber shop, that is what he called it.

8:11 And so he told them anyone who had been shaved, to not take them to the official detention center and instead take them straight over the river, this is his quote. Straight over the river and kick them across after you clip their heads. Oh my god. Yeah. And Bob knew that this practice would be looked down upon and shut down by his authorities, and so this is why he kept it on the down low by saying, like, hey, don't process them like normal, just drive them straight to the border. Yeah. But they were only able to keep it on the down low for so long, and this came to the attention of the higher ups like Chief Patrol Inspector Fletcher Rolls. So it came to their attention after one officer got mad that a group of eight migrants, hey, they were like resisting detention and like running away and stuff.

9:02 So anyway, he was mad basically that they were resisting him, and he shaved all of their heads, and some of them ended up being processed at the detention center. And Bob praised this agent saying, quote, he peeled all of them. He did a good job of it. He had made in apache out of some of them, cut crosses on their heads, just the long haired ones. One old boy had a bushy mustache. He'd shaved off half of it. End quote, Oh my god, isn't that disgusting? They were like, yes, it was interesting to me. The way they talk about it, like these quotes. They talk like, obviously, shaving someone's head against their own will is violating their rights, because you have a right to have the hair, your hair the way you want it and present yourself as you choose, you know what I mean. So it is a torture tactic and a violation of human rights. But they're also he's talking about it as if it was something more violent, right, And obviously it is violent. To shave someone's head against their will. But he's like equating it to scalping. Yeah, yeah, and it's like, like, I it seems like they almost wish they could be like literally like cutting them, Like they're doing this in place of scalping, Otherwise they would be scalping right there. Yeah. And so they're using the same language they did of their own ancestors, who were or not even that far removed Predeceppler generations back predecessors, that's a better word. Yeah, they're ing the language of their predecessors, the Texas Rangers in relation to just shaving

10:36 their heads. Yeah, because to them it's the same mm hmm. Disgusting truly. Fletcher order to stop this practice until he could determine the constitutionality of it, like whether or not it violated the civil rights of Mexican detainees. But soon Mexican journalists were exposing the California Board Patrol of this cruel practice. It had also like independently developed over there, because this was going to Wow, Fletcher is uh from Texas, Like the border Patrol in Texas? How horrible is this organization that apparently exactly Yeah, they're coming up with these cruel and unusual punishments, like they're not they didn't communicate with each other too, and yet they're doing the same shit, right, statistic shit. Yeah. So Fletcher was like, we don't need this heat, and he called up Alberto Moreno and he asked if the Mexican Border Patrol could pick up this practice of head shaving until the civil rights issues in the US could be worked out. And Alberto agreed, happily, happily said you say jump, I jump, You say said I sit, You say, shave the head of my Mexican brethren, and I'm gonna do it. Yeah. Yeah, Unfortunately, fuck Alberto Moreno was that name? Fuck this ful? Yeah, okay, And so the Mexican Border Patrol continued this practice for years until it was okay and again in the United States under the guise of public health and hygiene, under the guise of public health and hygiene. Mm hm, you know what. Sorry,

12:06 that's why. That's why shit under the guys of public health and hygiene pisses me the fuck off. When I made videos about Operation not opreaging went back about the bathriot, there were so many comments from ignorant ass bitches who were like he was to keep the country healthy or it was for their health, and it's like stop. But they only did it at certain points of entry. They only did it to certain migrants of people, Mexican exigrants. And that's what I told them. They were like, they did this in Ellis Island. Yes, and then they stopped and the practice went on away longer. Yes, and the next these like reductive ass comments either don't care or don't think about or accombination of both things. Yeah, anything to like minimize the harm that this was actually causing and excuse it. Yes. Yes. Despite all of the deterrence efforts fences, train lifts, airlifts, bus lifts, and humiliation, unauthorized migration continued. Soon migrant detainees were facing overcrowdedness in detention centers, and soon county also were being used to detain migrants, but these became overcrowded too. Border Patrol hoped that the overcrowdedness would serve as a deterrent, but apprehensions continued, So then the Border Patrol introduced boat lifts as a new deterrent.

13:31 Boat lifts. Yeah, they used these drain operations web back the boatlets returned deportees from Port Isabel, Texas, to Tampico and Vera Cruz on three different chips, the SS Emancipation, SS Mercurio and the SS Vera Cruz. In May nineteen fifty six, the INS Commissioner Joseph Swing described the boat lifts as deterrents because quote, these interior Mexicans don't like the seawater. I understand, they get a little seasick and they're a long way from home end. Quote Like what the fuck is this? This is the same, like I said, a scientific bullshit, like the tracking, the footprint tracking we were talking about earlier, and the walk, the way they would analyze the walking and supposedly how Mexicans walk a certain way. Yes, in part two, the ballos are going to work because Mexicans don't like the water. They don't like water. Like, what the fuck is please, that's not even true. And you know they said the same thing about enslaved black people. Yeah, and in the US when so many times the sea was a form of escape in certain places, like swim down the river, go through this other area and you're free. Like yeah, they are, they're just rais. Yeah. Yeah. Only a few months after the introduction of this practice, things turned deadly deeper aboard the SS Medcudio righted and thirty six deportees jumped from

15:04 the ship as a docked for emergency docking, and sadly, five of them drowned. After this incident, theists stopped using boatlets boat lifts to transport Mexican deportees and they reintroduced airlifts. Wow, this we said it in the Operation Wetback episode. But the conditions of these boats mirrored the condition of the boats that were used to transport enslaved people. Yeah. Yeah, they were horrible, horrible conditions. Overcrowded. Everything was like overcrowded, the planes, the trains, they just didn't care the jen You know what's wild is that Well, obviously we talked about Operation Wetback on these boats happening during Operation Wetback, but then also the plane that crashed that we covered the it was around this time period too. Wasn't in the thirties, Oh yeah, you're right, it was before. They've always been doing this, but they were using airlifts earlier.

16:03 I said they started they got planes after World War Two and they started using airlifts like pretty much a little bit after that. Yeah, okay, but that's all I could think of when I read that they when they started using airlifts, I'm like it just yeah, I came to my mind the that plane crash because it was overcrowded, because they were just trying to stuff as many Mexicans to send back in one trip. Yeah. Along with these tactics, deportees were being beat by the Mexican Border Patrol, when decades before, the Mexican government was warning migrants are being abused by the United States if they went north. Do you remember that, like episodes ago, Yes, that they issued that warning, but now they're partaken in that. Yeah. Violence. Juancilos, a deportee, spoke to a journalist about this, saying, quote, why did they talk about discrimination toward workers abroad when here, brother of our own race almost kill us? So it's like violent. Wow. Sometimes the Mexico and US Border Patrol collaborated and sometimes they fought, especially when there were disagreements about the rest of the program, because that was like an ongoing thing. But no matter how they were getting along, the migrants bore the brunt of it all. In one example of collaboration, Chief Patrol Inspector Fletcher. Fletcher requested that Mexico Border Patrol clear out a migrant camp along the border in Tampico near Dona, Texas. It was home to

17:37 over five hundred migrants, men, women, and children. For the longest time. The people living in the camp had been able to avoid capture by the US Border Patrol by running south into Mexico when they were being chased. But when the United States asked the Mexican Border Patrol for help, the migrants were met by the Mexican Border Patrol shooting at them once they ran south. So they were all shared and the camp was cleared. Oh my god, fuck all Board patrols, That's what I'm saying. Yeah, So let's jump forward a bit and talk about some different operations conducted by the United States Border Patrol. In June nineteen fifty four, the Board Patrol announced that it will launch its most aggressive campaign yet and would have seven hundred and fifty specially trained agents running this campaign, Operation Wetback, which we did talk about. I was going to say Operation Went Back, right, Yeah, So we have a whole episode on that that Christina researched, and in the episode you also talked about Operation Cloudburst, which was in nineteen fifty three. Yes, yes, it's predisaster. No, yeah, it's Predisaster in nineteen fifty three, and Operation Went Back was nineteen fifty four. Yes, okay, okay, yeah. And so I'm not going to talk about that much here because Operation Wetback has its own episode and Operation cloud ursus talked about in that episode. So Operation Wards was spearheaded by that fucking bitch Harlan b Carter, bitch bug him. Yeah, we

19:08 don't like him. Yeah. And in the proposal of Operation cloud Burst, Harlan requested that the US and military be used to purge the country of undocumented Mexicans, and he outlined three basic steps to do so. First, and anti infiltration operation near or on the border to quote seal the border, stationing soldiers along the border, and building fences along the heavy draffic areas of the border, along with wire concertina. The wire fencing the tool of the oppressor. Yes, oh right, I immediately as soon as I saw that, I read that, and I'm like the tool of the oppressor on top of the fence. Second, a containment operation consisting of roadblocks on all major roads leading from the southwest to the interior of the United States, and the third phase would consist of sweet or raids and for the Border Patrol to work with Mexico to airlift or train lift all deporties to the interior of Mexico. But Operation Cloudburst never happened because of a little thing called the law, which they actually followed. Back then, there's this thing.

20:19 There's actually been a lot of mention, a lot of talk about it. I don't know if you've heard of this lately. I have. It's been in the news a lot. This law Posse commentatas from eighteen seventy eight, and this basically prohibits the use of the army for domestic law enforcement unless Congress grant authority. Right, unless Congress grants authority right. And but the law, at least from what I read in the book, this could be superseded by the United States President making a presidential proclamation. So I haven't heard that part of it, which officially hasn't been done. I don't think so. No. Yeah, But back then then President Eisenhower refused. Eisenhower, OK, He's like, I'm not doing this. Instead, Eisenhower assigned a retired general from I forgot what branch of the military to the I in s so the you think it was the army? It probably I think I talked about it a little bit. Okay, I don't think I wrote down his name. Oh okay, I was like, I don't remember seeing his name in your notes. No, no, I put some general. Oh okay, well it was this ful.

21:32 I think it's so funny how we will talk about something and there was an episode on something else later and then find out they're connected, and then I'm like, oh, this would have made sense to talk about before. Yeah. I always wish we would do things in order, but that's just not how our minds work. We say that so much. Yeah, but if anyone is like listening out of order and listening to these, wait, that would be weird if you listened to this episode first. But if anyone ever wants to re listen, I guess like it would be good to really listen to the Border Patrol episodes and then the Operation Wetback episode, Like that would be such a good order of things. You know, we didn't know what we didn't know. Yeah, the horrible history of Border Patrol, which I hate. Oh yeah, this is like the worst thing. Ever, like I already obviously already hated the Border Patrol, and now it's like a an more if that's eve impossible. You did hatred the burns with the fires the evers in the embers of Yeah, Barnie my soul. So yeah, Joseph Swinging worked with Harlan Carter to develop Operation Wetback. No, isn't this the general Joseph Swing. Yes, Joseph Swing is the general that you talked about without naming. In June tenth of nineteen fifty four, at dawn one hundreds of United States Border Patrol officers set up roadblocks throughout California and western Arizona, where they reportedly detained approximately you love it, thousand undocumented Mexicans within

23:03 a week, and they continued these kind of sweeps for the next three months in South Texas, Chicago, Illinois, and in the Mississippi Delta in La raids were conducted in popular hotels and restaurants, and Border Patrol detained more people than they could handle, and they turned public spaces like Allisian Park into temporary holding stations, which you talked about aka constant ration camps. Right literally, newspapers, there's a La Times newspapers saying contentration camp created and allegian paring housing Mexicans where they were reporting abuse. These public raids and detention public detention centers brought a lot of media attention, and Border Patrol used the attention as a warning to what would happen in Texas since the operation started in California. First, Border Patrol used this to negotiate with Textan farmers and to pressure them to meet the requirements of BASTA program and to hire brasettos instead of undocumented workers. And the operation began to wind down by October, mostly because funds were running dry, and the commissioner of the Iis Joseph Swing, declared victory, saying, quote, the era of the web back is over. Like, what kind of fucking shit is that?

24:21 The era of the wet back is over. That's what he said, Joseph Swing, Doug CARLN Carter Bug the Border Patrol. Yeah, I'm gonna clip that and just have It's gonna be fun. And he also claimed that over a million undocumented immigrants had been deported, but as we know from when Christina covered operation went back, that was a gross exaggeration. Yes, and then stupid bitch as Trump was repeating those numbers like, but you don't even know. That's not even true. It wasn't even true. But all he does is lie literally no, yeah, yeah, if he's talking, he's lying. That's true, that's true. True. No, yeah, if he opens as big ass mouth to talk to lie. Yeah.

25:12 In reality, high estimates put the numbers of migrants supported at two hundred thousand, and lower estimates at thirty three thousand, two hundred and seven. Especially when you look at the actual time frame during which Operation Went Back took place during the Border Patrol's fiscal year. It only took like Operation Went Back only happened at the tail end of the Porer Patrol's fiscal year, and they lied in the numbers. They counted the Operation web Back numbers like for all year. Of course I don't know, like she explained it better in the book, but basically they were lying. Yeah, basically they inflated their numbers. And during Joseph Swing's leadership of the ins that was like a thing like he would just lie and make numbers up and make things seem like bigger and higher than they I'm not surprised. Yeah.

26:03 And also none of the Border Patrol officers received any kind of special training. In fact, this was just an expansion of the special Mexican details that we talked about last episode. Like they didn't do they he was just lying the whole time, Like they didn't Mexican parties special. Yeah, the special Mexican parties, special Mexican details, and there was like other names for them. But basically, yeah, these were the same kind of operations that were already doing. They just did at a larger scale and there was like no special training and they didn't actually detain that much people, like they just lied. And like we mentioned last episode, the Border Patrol had been doing raids like operation went back since the nineteen forties, and they continued to do so well into the nineteen fifties, and this earned them a negative reputation, especially among ranchers and farm owners, and I briefly mentioned standoffs between the Border Patrol and ranchers happening pretty frequently last episode. To rehabilitate their image and reputation, the Border Patrol relied on the trader asks middle class Mexican Americans. Of course, anytime something fucking negative happens, who is at who is at? The behind it behind as middle class Mexican Americans. Yes, that's crazy. Of course I'm not surprised, but at the same time, I'm like, of course, of course it was them. Yeah. Yeah, it's like those those TikTok videos that are going around of like oh or posts. They're not always tek talk videos, but just

27:34 it's always the same words Mexican and Texas starts earning fifty K and suddenly they yeah, they're MAGA supporters. This is like the equivalent of that back then. And so yeah, these fools believe that undocumented Mexicans quote and this is the quote that they said, I wouldn't be saying this word otherwise. They also didn't me that well, you'll see quote materially retarded our assimilation, so they didn't So middle class Mexican Americans believe that undocumented Mexicans quote materially retarded our assimilation. So they didn't mean like the our words slur like it slowed down the assimilation, because that's how they used to use this word back then too. Yeah, but yeah, they that that Mexicans, undocumented Mexicans slowed down the assimilation, and it's like, well, we don't have to, Yeah, start trying to make a similation happen. It's not gonna happen.

28:35 I don't want to assimilate. I've assimilated enough. I speak English too much, honestly, I work in nine to five and I don't want to. I went to college to a p W. I I sometimes buy taco bell I used a swiffer. That's assimilation. I don't use the all the ring owl in my hands. I actually did go back to those mops. I'm my later, but I haven't yet anyway, And they often described the quote web back in Invasion as the biggest problem for Americans of Mexican descent, Americans of Mexican descent. But you call middle class Mexicans an American of Mexican descent, that's nobody accept these motherfuckers crazy.

29:29 What a crazy thing to say. And Mexican American workers and unions supported the border patrol and strict immigration laws because they could not compete with the low wages that were offered to undocumented workers. But that's not the fault the undocumented workers like. It's a capitalismo exactly exactly, it's the faults of capitalism. For our Spanish challenge friends, And there was even one instance where you need probably more than one instance. But anyway, were Union members in Imperial Valley arrested quote the wetbacks who were living in caves and on the ditches and took them to Born patrol unquote.

30:10 They were literally doing the work of porn patrol. Yeah. And Okay, when I made that video about Sessa Chavis and the wetlines, people came for me, tell me why. I am was like, this isn't surprising after we learned everything about the Chavis. But this isn't the first or the last time that Mexican Americans do shit like this. It's literally happening right now with all the Latinos for Trump. It's always been happening. But like that is an example of it. And all the Latinos working for por patrol that we've seen exactly and they've always done it, They've always joined. Like like you said in part one of the series, the early border patrol had Mexican Americans in it and they wanted to call themselves Spanish. But what you just shared is exactly what Sessa Chavis had the Uniteds doing in their wetlines. Yeah, and Union members also patrol the border and reportedly turned back about three thousand unsanctioned migrants three thousand, and they were doing this for free.

31:15 I'm assuming they were doing the job of border patrol for free. Yeah, I'm out. No, we're done, let me put these back on. Sorry what. But it's also important to note that the working class Mexican Americans didn't support the border patrol without reservations. They, unlike the middle class Mexican Americans, whole hardily supported them. The middle of course, right right, the working class union workers and stuff. They believe migrants deserved fair treatment and often came to the defense of undocumented workers when they learned of any injustices. And that was both against the farmers and border patrol.

31:58 Bless them. And yeah, like I said, the middle class Mexican Americans wholeheartedly supported the poor patrol, and they often described the border patrol as quote maligned, misunderstood, and underappreciated. That's like, you could replace that with cops too, and they would say the same thing, probably because I don't know, there's this fascination about upholding these jobs that are the worst Border patrol ice cops, they're the same thing. It's because of copaganda. Yeah, Kelly. The author describes the Mexican American class as submitting to their own harassment and hopes that the mass deportation of undocumented Mexicans would improve their own job security and living conditions. That they basically consented to their own harassment and discrimination to have a leg up on people more oppressed than them that were also their people. Like that's so crazy. It is your own people.

33:00 This this is just yet another example of like, oh I got here, I got mine, I let the ladder, let me keep the ladder down. Yeah. Preceding Operation Wetback, members of the American GI Forum, a veterans organization for Mexican Americans. I knew theseers were going to pop up children of immigrants all POC, all bipoc. Stop joining the military. Yeah, at border patrol and while you're at it, the police. They so. The members of the American GI Forum wrote letters to the Texas Attorney General asking that the entire quote the entire US Mexican border we closed against illegal entry of aliens end quote. In their letters, they also wrote about quote mass invasion by hordes of illegal aliens end quote and the economic and social disruptions that that would oppose fucking stupid, dumb ass veterans. Dude. Yeah, these were the same bitches who were applauding operation went back until their own started being deported. Literally, they were just like now and I'm like things that were changed a little by little. I guess because I need to have a hope. I don't know, I don't know what hope is.

34:32 And Mexican American leaders knew they and Mexican Americans would be racially profiled, surveiled, and under suspicion, and they consented to it and asked their fellow Mexican Americans to be okay with essentially being criminalized for the greater good. Ed Evad, who I think was the leader of the American GA Forum, called for a meeting and public forums and statements to be issued requesting complian alliance from Mexican Americans. He said, quote, there may be occasions when some of our residents and American citizens may be asked to present identification. Our people must be made to realize that the officers not only will be discharging a duty imposed on them by law, but the successful discharge of that duty in cleaning out the web backs will react to the betterment of employment and economic opportunities for our people to anything for a fucking dollar. I guess, like I understand wanting you know, a better job, better life, but at the back, at the expense, right of your people, right, yeah, at the backs of your deals and theas like your little parents calling for the oppression of one group for you yourself to have lega But if that is not capitalism, and that's not literally what the United States has always done, and yeah, and the oppression of you like literally your own yeah, like Frank Pinelo Pinelo, then president of LULAC,

36:07 said the following quote. The Immigration Service is to be highly commended for their careful planning for this drive, not only in South Texas, but in California as well. It is important that all members of LULAC should represent to the people of Texas that the league wholeheartedly supports this drive and in the incidents, if any occur, should be carefully analyzed before hasty judgment is passed and harmful criticism is made. Of course, LULAC said that again that's not They're not like that today. The lu luck of then is not the lu luck of today. No, they have changed, but back then, this is all this is what they were about. Yeah, no, truly, like they literally spearheaded Mexicans being labeled as white because they wanted to align themselves with whiteness. And that is the reason why we have to mark white has a raise. Yeah. Yeah, And I don't know. It's like we were saying, like if the betterment, if my betterment comes at the harm and impression of others, I don't know, I don't want it. Oh my god tans moment. Oh but yeah no, like no, yes, no, but some people are not like that, some people. I think this country has a problem with yes, and the cent period has a problem period. No, there's a problem of empathy and like lack of consciousness, like they don't give up. Fuck. It's like like and that's why we

37:39 are where we are. Yeah, I mean we're literally have so called Christians pushing out a message of toxic empathy. And I've literally seen that bitch Alibeth Stucky who wrote that fucking book Toxic Empathy, Like her whole book is about warning, supposedly warning Christians about falling for quote toxic empathy, saying like oh there's gonna be like she has a chapter on immigration, right and She's made tweets and stuff like basically warning questions like, oh, don't let these they're gonna push out these images, these videos of children and women crying, but don't let that fool you. Like they're using their warping your empathy, and I'm like, you should be empathetic. You know, who would be empathetic to these people and who would be on the side of the immigrants because he literally said that per the Bible, Jesus their lord and say your Jesus Christ Jesus. But they follow nothing that Jesus says. No, they created their own version of Jesus to justify their violent Jesus views. And yeah, I'm like this is not like I don't know if you guys are so wrong, and Jesus is like, what are these folks doing in my name? I'm sorry, But if only they hadn't been raptured, I mean, yeah, would like literally be a better place, we would be safe. Yeah.

39:03 In other efforts to rehabilitate their image, Border Patrol often pose their work as protecting migrants from abhorrent working conditions and abuse. It wait, okay, this is remember the Border patrol serial killer we covered on a spookito. Yeah, one of the reasons he gave us wanting to join is to help people. And they really believe it. They really believe it. They do. Like this was their their messaging, like like if they had a mission statement, it would have been something like that, and they probably did, but I didn't like look it up or anything. But they literally had like this message like that their work was protecting migrants from the horrible working conditions and abuses perpetrated by ranchers and farm owners. And then in response, the ranchers would accuse Border Patrol of using racially motivated and gestapol like taxics. Like just look today, people are comparing Ice to the gestapol. Well, this is going out back in the fifties as well. They've always been this, you're just seeing it at a large scale exactly. No, that's like literally the whole point of the Soul series is like to show that they've always been this. Yeah yeah, like they're not any worse, They've always been as bad.

40:09 Yeah yeah. And people keep saying like, oh, this is not America. I'm sorry, but this was going on like since the inception of they keep comparing it to Nazi Germany and it's like, stop, just compare it to here, stop we had. Yeah. Yeah, officers described quote, wets being housed wet, they call us wets. Wets is worse, that's gross, right, and so yeah, they described undocumented workers being housed in every conceivable kind of shelter, ramshackle, abandoned old houses, barns, sheds, chicken coops, abandoned cars, caves, dug into canal banks, and tents.

40:58 And so. Officers just described the ranchers threatening workers with Border patrol if they complained about their conditions. And of course we know these kind of things that happen, these abuses were happening, but that doesn't mean that Border Patrol had the well being of migrants in mind at all, of course not. Yeah, and even when they were supposedly helping to liberate migrants, they described migrants as simple minded, backward, pathetic, and oppressed people, like saying like, oh, these people need our help because they're they're pathetic, they're oppressed, they're simple minded, like they still they thought they were stupid. Yeah. In the nineteen sixties, Border Patrol focused its energy on persecuting undocumented Mexicans who had fraudulent documents. Many memos and correspondents from this time showed that the INS believed Mexicans had developed the new ways of entering the United States with fraudulent paperwork at official ports of entry as opposed to untagationed border crossings. Oh is this like using a cousin's birth certificate to pretend you were that cousin because maybe you're the same age. Yeah, yeah, I love that, though.

42:12 You got to get create innovative. A Border patrol officer in La said, quote, the most difficult problem we have encountered is the detention of illegal Mexican aliens who have assumed the identity of US citizens and have acquired documents showing birth in the United States. It just grows the way it's like talked about, like the word aliens and trading people like a citizen people just people. Yeah, Like that's just create to me, crazy dehumanizing thing to say, but I agree normal for them. Yeah. In nineteen fifty eight, the established the Fraudulent Document Center in Yuma, Arizona, and by nineteen sixty four all officers were trained in document analysis, and so that was like a shift in who and how bar Patrol was persecuting or conducting like, you know, their work. And also during this time, the Border Patrol changed the way they viewed migrants so houseway well before when they were doing the raid that the ranches and the farms, burd Patrol viewed their large scale operations as liberating the simple minded and oppressed Mexican farm laborer from the evil ranchers, right right, right, and in the eyes of Bord Patrol, they triumphed against a former slavery like that's how they described their works. Stupid and like in

43:44 their eyes, you know, they defeated, defeated this you know, forced slab type of Yeah, if I had such a terrible, like literally the most inhumane, worst job in the world, I would be in the US and would be making things up to make myself feel better too, right, right, and so like in their eyes, we stopped slavery. We legalized the remaining undocumented Mexican workers by making them paracettos. Mind you, it was miniscule the amount of Mexican Mexicans that were eligible to buda sottos. And also in their rise, they secured the border. So they did all this work, right, and so then to them, any migrant that dared to re enter the United States without authorization after being supported.

44:25 That was criminal. And so this change in the way of thinking brought a new era to the border patrol, an era of criminalizing the Mexican migrant. So like it shifted from this oppressed, poor, starving person, like, oh, they just need a job to this criminal yes, okay, and kind of never left that. Like that's where we're we've been since then, and that's where we still are. Yeah. In nineteen fifty six, a chief enforcement officer from the Southwest Region instructed his officers to stop using the word wetback. He said the word wetback should be deleted from the vocabulary of all immigration officers. We have been aware for some time that the name wetback creates a picture in the minds of the public and the courts of a poor, emitiated Mexican worker entering the US illegally to feed a starving family at home. There may have been some justification to this view a few years ago, when we were invaded by hordes of just such people, But today it is I'm sorry, sounds like fucking zombies, right, Oh, actually on the zombie movie oftentimes is commentary on immigration. But today it is no longer true. Today's apprehensions consist in the main part of criminals, often vicious and type, and of hardened and defiant repeaters. In its place, a true designation should be used to both orally and otherwise in

45:57 our contacts with each other, the public, and the par end quote not this is like the most cursed attempt that politically political correctness. Oh but that wasn't his attempt at all. His attempt was to be like, Okay, the word of wetback is associated with the poor worker who is just trying to get ahead in life. So he's like, that's not the case. We're dealing with criminals, so we have to change the language. Like, if we keep using this word wetback, that's the image that people think of. I'm sorry, what year is this. This was in nineteen fifty six. Yeah, we're still kind of far from I was expecting this to be like I was expecting this to be like the nineties, Like this is literally this is like when do you like, what do you mean?

46:38 What do you mean? So, yeah, he was proposing his agents start referring to migrants as quote criminal aliens when they had a criminal record and as quote deportable aliens if they didn't, and so officers they start using criminal alien. But instead of using the term the portable alien, they started using a border violator, which it invokes images of again criminal. They're criminalizing the immigrant. Yeah. Yeah. This shift in language refocused the Border Patrol's mission to crime control by preventing the entry of so called criminal quote aliens and quote border violators into United States. So like, now that's how they view their work and the kind of like in this criminal space, whereas before wasn't as much right, right.

47:31 The Border Patrol engaged in image control once again, this time by using public information officers to put stories of agents participating in anti smuggling and narcotic activities, and by propagandizing the youth. The Border Patrol established junior patrol clubs for boys and communities with border Patrol stations. That's disgusting. This is the indoctrination we should be worrying about. But now they're about drag queens instead. Yeah, I hate I hate this. I was gonna say something about this. Oh, this is a kin to when cops post, yeah, a drug bus and it's like dollars that are spread out right, Yeah, and in these programs, they pushed the message that border patrol was the first line of defense against crime. In some of their recruitment ads, they said, quote, the alien who violates our border is breaking the laws of this country and his own. Having broken one law, it is easier for him to break another. And I'm like this, this is the same shit they're saying now. And I'm like, get some new messaging, get a news logan like this is such old news. You're just repurposing the same fucking racist bullshit. And it's old, mind you. So distics show that immigrant communities commit less crimes than people born. Yeah, and it so strue back then. It's true now, and

49:02 they really believe that they're doing that, like they they believe it's just like when people join the military and they really believe that they're presenting democracy. You know, you're educating the world that I was challenging inner in the Marine, where I said basically said that already that this messaging of immigration control as crime control continues to this day. Like I said, it's getting all the bitches. Yes. And this shift also brought new tactics since the INS was now dealing with criminals instead of migrants in their rise of course, mm, this sounds like it's gonna turn to more violence. Yeah. In April nineteen fifty six, the INS instituted a new policy in which all detained migrants would be strip searched. Instead of prepping detainees for deportation at the ten tenors, ions began holding all detainees until they could complete investigations into their criminal backgrounds. So it used to be mainly a processing center, and now they were holding people for longer and longer, which is until they paved the way to what it is now, yes, exactly.

50:17 The INS also began taking the fingerprints of detainees and forwarding them to the FBI, and if the fingerprints were a hit at the FBI, then Border Patrol would begin prosecution proceedings against the migrants. In January nineteen sixty five, these policies started being applied to first time immigration offenders as well, and although the Border Patrol was focusing more on criminalization, their new endeavor didn't really seem worthwhile. A nineteen fifty seven internal report found that only three detainees per day qualified for criminal prosecution. Oh wow, so it's like the same bullshit like everything they do is like a waste of money, resources, in time and within the taxpayer's time, like nothing, Operation web Back. They lied, I think the results everything. Yeah, despite these abysmal numbers, Joseph Swing asked for an increased budget. So he was arguing that the criminal threat within the undocumented Mexican community demanded that the United States par patrol efforts along the United States Mexican border be adequately funded as a form of crime control. So basically basically saying like, oh, the demand is so high, like we have to have this money because these people are criminals. Blah blah blah. He's still lying, he's lying. Yeah, yeah. In order to convince Congress, Joseph presented grossly exaggerated numbers about criminal immigrants. Of course, just how we had grossly misrepresented the numbers for Operation Went Back.

51:44 Of course, yeah, there's more detail in the book. But he lied about like migrants being violent, you know, offenders of sexual you know, abuse including of children, this and that. But he was exaggerating the numbers. In reality, like border patrol was doing most of these things. Yes, of course, everything they do, everything they say is a lie, and then they accuse every accusation as a confession that they say, that's exactly what I was trying to say, but I couldn't think of it. But yeah, further criminalization came and in the form of the Narcotics Act of nineteen fifty six. Among other things, the law established drug addiction and drug law violations as grounds for deportation. The drug trade did rise in Mexico, but like almost everything that goes wrong in the world, it could be tied back to United States, of course, so you're so right for that. During World War two, at the request of the United States, and Mexico became the main producer of opium and heroin, especially in the areas of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Durango, and these regions also produce marijuana and hemp, and hemp was like at the requests of the United States too. Then, after World War Two, the Demandic and the United States called for an end to opium production in Mexico, but the process of eradicating these fields was slow, and soon Mexico emerged as the main road between the United States, the world's largest consumer of drugs, and drug cartels in South America.

53:14 So used to all come from South America, like there was not until Yeah, cartels in Mexico started, And all of this was going on during the rise of politicians focusing on law and order issues, which reinforced the Border Patrol as a federal crime control organization and its concentration in the United States Mexico borderline. So all of this was connected and basically pushing the Border Patrol as like crime control and the presence and focus again always focus on Mexicans basically right. On September twenty first, nineteen sixty nine, President Nixon launched Operation Intercept, during which for seven weeks, United States Border Patrol officers stopped all pedestrian and vehicular traffic at the border to check for drugs possibly being smuggled into the US. Of course, like most of these operations, it didn't actually yield great results. Yeah, I just wasted time and money, of course. Yeah, compared to the large scale operation, a minimal amount of drugs were found. But the Operation Intercept cemented the United States Mexico border as the primary site of the War on drugs, which, as we know, only expanded in later decades. And the war on drugs gave the Border Patrol justification more justification to persecute Mexicans and to get a bit with them, because now, right as they were trying to push this image, they're dealing with criminals now and now criminals with drugs. And just to give one example, on March eighteenth, nineteen eighty two,

54:47 a Border Patrol officer whose name I couldn't find, opened fire on twenty five to thirty unarmed undocumented immigrants who were walking along the Nogales, Arizona border. And it's far you could see. They didn't face any consequences, of course not. And there's more examples in the book. Let's jump backwards again the nineteen seventies, when Bord Patrol was celebrating its fifty years. This brought an era of contingent and activism against Port Patrol. Gone were the days of the Mexican American population co signing their own harassment and discrimination. And this, I'm assuming coincise with the rise of the Chicano movement.

55:29 Literally my next sentence, you bitch, Oh my god, yes it is okay. And during this time, once again the question of racial profiling by the Border Patrol garnered attention. On jun eleventh, nineteen seventy three, Felix Umberto Brignoni Bonze was driving with two of his friends when he was pulled over by two Bord Patrol officers. The officers reported pulling Felix and his friends over because they appeared to be of Mexican, which to them was enough to suspect them of crossing the border with the authorization. Felix ended up being a citizen, but his friends admitted to entry in the United States without authorization, and all three of them were arrested, Felix for quote knowingly transporting illegal immigrants, which was a felony, and his friends for illegal entry.

56:21 Felix challenged his arrest on the grounds that the Border patrol violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. He and his lawyers were arguing rightfully, in my opinion, that being of Mexican descent was insufficient evidence of having entered the country illegally, and the case made its way to the US Supreme Court, and as Kelly writes, the question before the court was not whether Felix and his friends committed a crime, but whether race was a legitimate tool of discretion when enforcing immigration laws, and ultimately, the court held that the Border Patrol's use of Mexican appearance as an indicator of having entered the country without authorization was reasonable when legitimate. Okay, so this is the second time, literally what I was going to bring up because I was gonna say so they've of course they've done it before, so like none of us should have been shocked that here we are yet again the third ruling by the US Supreme Court recently. One was probably like two three months ago that the Supreme Court essentially ruled it was okay for border patrol to racially profile Platinos. Well, that is the third time that they have made such a rule.

57:30 The third time, yeah, yep. But protests and resistance against port patrol continued, as it always has, and it led to the US Commission on Civil Rights launching an investigation into the impact of immigration enforcement on the civil rights of the community, citizens and immigrants alike. Okay. The Commission found that there was corruption with in the ins and confirmed the Mexican community's allegations of harassment, discrimination, and use of excessive force by the Border patrol. And much like today, the community had formed counter surveillance groups to monitor the border patrol and protect the community. These groups are doing work. Oh, they are doing amazing work. Amazing work. And one of these groups, the Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring a Project or ILIMP, found that between nineteen eighty seven and nineteen ninety so three years, there were over three hundred and eighty cases of excessive force, racial harassment, and sexual assault, largely perpetrated by border patrol officers. Wow, how how many you can three hundred and eighty cases? Okay. In another reform attempt in the late nineteen seventies, President Jimmy Carter appointed Leonell Castillo to lead THES and he oversaw many changes, including a massive turnover when some new federal regulations required all

59:02 border patrol to retire when they reached the age of fifty five. After this mass turnover, white women and men and women of color began joining the border patrol, where they faced discrimination, violence, and harassment. A black officer who was promoted to a supervisor position shared stories of having shit rubbed in his car, being called the N word, and being told that he would be deported to Africa. Jesus, And this isn't in the book, but it reminded me of again. I've been keep talking about the video with Jen Budd who is a whistleblower with ICE and has a memoir. But she talked about being sexually assaulted when she joined ICE as a an initiation, and that it was a thing that they would rape and sexually assault all women who joined por patrol. This is the most violent organization. Yeah, and that's like you canparare in that to the cops and to the military, and yet they rise above the rain in the most violent and it's like this. This was one black former black Border Patrol agent who or officer who said this happened to him.

1:00:10 Just yeah, there's more of course, like don't join these these organizations. Yeah. Yeah, And there was also a huge increase of Latinos joined in the Border Patrol by two thousand and eight. There was a decrease after you know, when I first talked about it, the early border patrol. Yeah, and even then there was I think only six people in the roster of nineteen thirty something, right, so it was like a mini school amount. But by two thousand and eight, fifty one percent of all Border Patrol were Latinos and they were primarily Mexican American fifty one percent. Yeah, and this was nogesting. I didn't look at current numbers, but I'm sure it's similar. Oh yeah, I don't doubt it at all. And some things did improve. For example, in nineteen ninety three, officers invested I guess had been reassigned to al Paso following a period of tension when bord Paturel would basically stock Bawi High School to harass students and the and this is obviously it was a primarily Mexican population of students. Yeah. The specific incident involved Border patrol officers stopping the car of the football coach ben Khamen Morillo, who had two of his players with him, so students. The assistant coach, Amesaga was driving by and when he saw Benhamin and the students being questioned, so he pulled over and Border patrol proceeded to point their guns at Kime and they're like, basically like stop interrupting or what is that worth? The interfeering that's the word they would say, interfering. You're interfewing with them, It should the fuck up. Benhamin helped the students he was with

1:01:43 and six others to file restraining orders and an injunction against the Border patrol, and a judge ruled in their favor, meaning that bowi Hei was now free of any border patrol activity, basically becoming a sanctuary, like free of any border patrol because they won in court. Oh my god, amazing. Yeah, and so this was happening when he invested, i was reassigned to a passo and he went on to end the raids in the area. Wow, placing border patrol agents directly at the border instead of in the community, and what he called operation hold the line, Hold the line of the naming, hold line and stay there. Yeah. And this was seen as a positive change and was implemented across the borderlands. But while this had a positive impact in the borderline communities on the United States side of the border, like they were not being they were not facing raids, they were not being persecuted and harassed as much, it left to harm against migrants at the border because the increased presence of agents at the border led to migrants taking more dangerous paths into the US right, and between nineteen ninety four and two thousand, the Mexican Consulate reported approximately seventeen hundred migrant deaths along the border. And the book goes on to describe different ways but it's what we've talked about before, you know, dehydration, drowning, starvation, horrible, horrible things. Yeah, And of course there's a lot more to be said, like the expansion of the War on

1:03:15 Drugs and the carsital State NAFTA ninety eleven, and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, which all greatly changed poor patrol. But that'd be like a whole other six episodes, right, So we are going to endings here. That's kind of where the book ends to. It describes when the Department of Homeland Security was established and the Border Patrol. What year was that. I mean, they've obviously haven't always they haven't always been around. It was after ninety eleven, okay, okay, And with DHS came ICE. Yeah right, okay. Oh, it says on March first, two thousand and three, the US Border Patrol was transferred to DHS. Okay, But it doesn't talk about ICE being created. But ICE was created around then too. And then in the part of the last pages of the book they talk about Muslims being targeted by DJAS and bor patrol through nine eleven. Two.

1:04:09 Oh yeah, ICE was also created March twenty and three, Okay, so yeah, I was like around the same time, I think they established Dajas, they moved Bord Patrol under them, and they created Ice. But yeah, I mean that's where we will end this history of the border Patrol, knowing that they continue to ruin the lives of many. I mean, my takeaway is that the border Patrol is rooted in racism and violence, and history has shown us that it cannot be reformed. Because we talked about the Reformation hardly in Part two or three, and then now again in the seventies there was another reform attempt and trying to reform it their violence and their horrible racism. So yeah, you can't reform this. Yeah, and then you know people will be in like, well, then what do you think is the answer? And again we don't have to have the answers to know that the system as it exists today is wrong. Yeah, but I also believe that there should be no borders. Yes, migration is a human right exactly, exactly. Okay, So those are my thoughts. That's what we believe. You don't have to believe that, but you have to know fuck border Patrol. Yeah, and that they've always sucked. Yeah, exactly, and again, yeah, rooted in racism and a traditional violence.

1:05:34 And yeah, I think if anything, this whole all this richer. Sorry, all this research that you've done has taught me that they've always been terrible. Yeah, and now it's more public, we're seeing it at a wider scale, and people, different groups of people are now afraid that they can be next. And we're hearing people say, oh, this is the Gestapo, this is Trump's personality police. But they've always done things like this, right, we're talking about in the thirties that people were comparing them to the Gestapo. Yeah, so for the forties, forties, yeah, and yeah, so just yeah, they've always been like this. We're just seeing it at a bigger scale now, which is yeah, it is worse, but it's not new, right to me, it seems that way.

1:06:23 It is that way. I have to say, my favorite part of all this was the guy who was like, yeah, this is a Mexican footsteps, not to make a video about that. Yeah, he was walking very mexicanly. You know what, the next time you're taking a step, ask yourself, am I walking mexicanly enough? Yeah? Forget loving mexicanly? Think about walking mexicanly, well, that footstep identify me as a Mexican. So yeah, yeah, next episode will be I'm hoping Operation Loan Stars. That's yeah, I think so. Yeah, maybe I'll try and get a little bit of the creation of Ice too. We'll see, Yeah, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. But yeah, and then hopefully we'll move on to other depressing history. Yeah, let us know your thoughts, like, did you learn anything new about Border Patrol? Do you hate them even more? Now? The only option is yes yeah our poll yes no, yes, strong yes. Yeah. I've been seeing comments on these episodes. Someone commented about on I forgot what the comment said, but on the like dying when they heard about the walking like a Mexican, like that's a Mexican footstep, Like, oh, I didn't realize I wasn't walk in that way. So yeah, other than that, Wild Carman, thanks for all this work that you did for this series. It's a struggle, I know, I know.

1:07:54 That's why I'm thanking you publicly. You're welcome, yes, yes, and then yeah, a reminder that when this comes out, you can still see us never still see us in person and Vivo and Vivo in Yakoma, Washington for the Googui is going to get you event where we're going to be in a spooky capacity, not a history capacity, but we're gonna be telling scary stories. Come say hi, I come through and maybe you'll see us walking around Seattle as well in the next week or so. Yeah. Yeah, don't be afraid to say hi. But you're if you're a nice agent, don't come here. No, I mean, what are you doing here anyway? If you are? I hope. Okay, Let's end this before we start saying more mease, Okay, okay, we hope this is the one. Let's the Study Unknown for you. Bye bye. Astorias Are Known is produced by Carmen and Christina, researched by Carmen and Christina, edited by Christina.

1:08:53 You can find sources for every episode at Storia Unknown dot com and in our show notes. Creating the podcast is a lot of work, so if you want to help us out financially, you can do so by supporting us on Patreon at Patreon dot com, slash Studies and own podcast