The History of Border Patrol (part one)

0:00 We're going to be reading some old acts and the word alien is in them, but we do not personally use this term, but it is part of the language of these laws. Hi. Everyone, this is Carmen and Christina and this is Estoria's Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history. Sometimes it's horrible and so tavy topics like racism, corruption, and genocide. But more than that, it's not about resistance, power and community. And Carmen, Christina, what are we talking about today? So I'm trying to open my sparkling water. Oh god knows, are like little grown out there? We do, good job? Okay, well, Christina, Today we are talking about the history of border patrol.

0:54 And this is gonna be a series because there's a lot to this and you've taken so long. Yeah, well no, I have not why it's going to be a series, but yeah, that's that's like in addition to it being a series, I have taken so long. And when did I start reading this, It's like August. Yeah. Yeah. My main source is Kelly Little or Little her Nasis book titled Mira, a History of US Border Patrol. Her book is like obviously most books are organized in a specific way, structure, whatever. And so I'm kind of using the book also to outline my notes. Supplemental, simplemental, supplementing, Okay, yeah, supplementing. Why does that sound weird anyway here and there for whatever, you know, things that come across. But this first part it's basically how the border patrol came to be. But before we talk about the border patrol, we have to talk about the history of immigration law and restrictions in the US. So you have talked about a little bit before a little bit. Yeah, before I get into the history of immigration restriction and blah blah, I wanted to share a quote of Kelly and it kind of like it encompassed like what border patrol is or whatever. This quote to me, so quote border patrol literally embody the site of political disenfranchisement, economic inequity, and social suspicion within

2:25 the United States. Like I don't know if that makes sense to you, but basic, I mean, the way I understood this is like border patrol presents all these things. Yes, thank you, thank you for that, because I needed the dumb bitch explanation for myself. So the border patrol was established after the passage of the Department of Labor Appropriations Act. And like I mentioned before, migration control in the US has been happening since the creation of the United States, since the gendercided a creation of the United States. I add, yes, So we've talked a little bit about these laws. I don't remember specifically which ones, but I know we have talked about some of them. If I if I recognize someone, but we said we talked about that one, I know we did, And yeah, I know we talked about it.

3:13 I think in the well, we've done a lot of immigration yeah episodes, and that would probably be where we talked about them, right, right. So a series of anti immigration laws were passed in the US, beginning with the internal fields beginning, but at least for my purpose, it's beginning eighteen sixty two Act to Prohibit the COOLi Trade and culminating with the National Orange Just Act of nineteen twenty four. And then we should note that this word cooly is a derogatory slur against Chinese workers, so I won't be repeating it. Oh, I was like, what is that? I don't recognize that word, But okay, I looked up why it started, and I don't remember why. How that specifical word came to be. But it's a slur against Chinese workers. What's that act called? I just want to see how it's filmed. Coo l E. But it's the eighteen sixty two Act to Prohibit the Cooley Trade. Oh Kooley is a derogatory term used for low wage laborers, typically those of Indian or Chinese descent. It was first used in the sixteenth century European traders across Asia. I just don't know why that word. Oh, I just know what you was to slur, right, Okay, I see what you're saying. Yeah, oh okay. The term kooli is widely believed to have originated from the Tamil word cool, meaning higher or wages. Oh you know what, yes, now that you said that, I remember reading that. Yeah. And it was the during the British colonial rule that they started using this as a derogatory term. Yeah, okay. So this

4:49 law masqueraded as an anti slavery law to protect supposedly protection Ese laborers from enforced labor, but in reality it pushed Chinese workers out by imposing a monthly acts on Chinese immigrants seeking to do business in California. Oh my, gosh, this sounds like the Anti Miners Act. It was like that basically, but specifically for Chinese laborers. And this law was later declared unconstitutional. When seeing the Washburn, what a surprise. Yep, shocker. Wait wait, year is this again? This is in the eighteen hundreds. Okay, and they like you. And this act was passed in eighteen sixty two. I didn't write down when it was declared uncon unconstitutional though, so okay, no, I was wondering when it was passed. So after this law, in eighteen seventy five, Congress passed a law prohibiting criminals and sex workers from legally entering the US, and they also extended the ban on contract workers from China. This one I think we talked about probably yeah in the Lagan matcha episodia. Then in eighteen eighty two, Congress passed a General Immigration Act that band all quote lunatics, idiots, convicts, those unliable to become public charges, and those suffering from contagious diseases quote. And then this law also expanded the restrictions on Chinese migrants by banning all Chinese laborers, not just contract workers. So the other one was the eight contract to one was, yeah, contract workers specifically, and these

6:23 were all workers. What year eighteen seventy five, right, okay, yeah, well okay, this was eighteen eighty two. Eighteen seventy five. One was prohibiting criminals and sex workers from literally entering the US. Yes. Yeah. And then besides these national laws, there was also a series of state specific anti Chinese laws passed in states like California. Just to give one example, in eighteen seventy, San Francisco passed the law requiring every lodging house to be no less than five hundred cubic feet of aerospace for each larger and this targeted China because they tended to be more crowded. And then also in eighteen eighty two, Congress introduced a fifty cent tax on each person entering the US to fund the bureaucracy of their growing migration control. In eighteen eighty five, Congress prohibited the import of any contract labor, not just Chinese contract labors, into the US. In eighteen ninety one, Congress banned polygamists to the list of banned persons in the United States, and they authorized the deportation of any person who unlawfully entered the United States. So I guess deportations were not a thing before that. I don't know, right, I wonder what they did then. In nineteen oh three, Congress added people with epilepsy, anarchists, and beggars to the list of banned people. Okay, very uGenius of them. Yes, yeah, they The Immigration Act of this year also allowed for

7:53 the deportation of anyone who became a public charge within two years of arriving to the United States. Okay, anyone arrested with an entry. I think a public charge is also anyone who is using who becomes like dependent on Oh, I don't know that. That's what I mean. That's what public charge means. Now, Oh, I don't know that either. Okay, Yeah, you still can't become a public charge if you are going through the process of becoming a resident or things like that. Okay, so this is when you use like government aid. Yeah. Oh, but I thought it was kind of government aid existed back then. That's why I'm not sure if it's the same thing, or if it just means if you can't work for yourself or on your own.

8:38 I'm not sure exactly the meaning of public charge in this sense, right, right, because if it was about criminal or becoming going to job, they would say criminal anyone who writes you know what I mean. Yeah, And the restrictions abandoned. Taxes just increased from there. By nineteen seventeen, the tax for entry in the United States was eight dollars. All eligible immigrants bes a literacy test, and the scope of deportation was brought into five years, and all entry into the United States outside of an official part of entry was banned. But that wasn't enough, Okay, I mean it already sounds like a lot. That wasn't enough. It wasn't enough for the eugenists, xenophobes, and nativists, but really like racists, right right, right. But they are referred to as navists nativists, you know, in the book, So that's what I'm gonna call them. And who is a nativist.

9:32 They're the people that wanted the United States to be native to Europeans. That's crazy, crazy things to say. They are not native Americans, if that's what you're asking, Okay, yeah, yeah, they're people who famously are not native to the United States wild and yeah. So that wasn't enough for them, and they kept pushing for more restrictive laws, specifically for anyone that was not from the northwestern areas of Europe of course. Yeah, and eventually the National Origins Act was passed. Oh and way, or is this I'm scrolling down? That was in nineteen twenty four though law in nineteen twenty four, Yeah, okay.

10:20 The National Origins Act introduced a nationality based quota system that limited the number of immigrants allowed into the US every year. The quota system gave Germany, Britain, and Northern Ireland sixty percent of all available Thoughts, wow, I'm sorry that that kind of sounds like DEI wow, because that's crazy. Yeah, a little bit codify the DEI mm hmm. The Act also reconfirmed the complete Asian exclusion from the United States, and I favored Europeans so heavily that historian John Higgham described the Act as a quote Nordic victory. That sounds like DEI for the Nordics. Yeah, okay. While many wanted all non white nationalities excluded from entry to the United States, there was one group who was in favor of exempting Mexicans from these exclusions and quotas. Who Southwestern agricultural businessman South Western agricultural businessman. Yes, oh, because they depended on Mexican labor, right right. I had to like think about it, and I'm like, no, of course they didn't want this. This reminds me of when uh, Texas landowners got in a firefight with border patrol over their Mexican workers. But it wasn't like to defend American rights. It was because they didn't want their workers picked up until it was convenient for them. I think that is mentioned in this book

11:52 later on. Oh, okay, of course it is or was it Texas Ranger. It might have been Texas Rangers and Board Patrol. It's probably the Texas Ranger and Border Patrol, yeah together, and if a preceder Border patrol, it was the Texas Rangers. Yeah, because they became a lot of them went in the same or whatever. Yeah. After the National Origins Act passed, there were Congressional hearings about the National Origins Act in which nativists and agricultural businessmen debated whether quotas should be added to the Act to limit Mexican immigration. So they were arguing about this, like should Mexicans be restricted, Mexican immigration be restricted or not. One congressman complained, quote, what is the use of closing the front door to keep out undesirables from Europe when you permit Mexicans to come in here by the back door, by the thousands and thousands, bitch the back shut up my quote. Stop fuck up. Nativists argued that Mexico was a nation of mongrels, that Mexicans were in assimilable racial inferiors, and that unrestricted Mexican what the fuck I'm sorry finished that quote. I couldn't that this quote was coming, and that unrestricted Mexican immigration were threatened the goals of the National origin to act so just basically to make the US a Northwestern European white country. I mean, if they wanted a Northwestern they should have been because they should

13:25 have stayed in northwestern Europe or whatever. The fuck. Yeah, we're gonna have more quotes like this, by the way, especially because, like you know, if you think way way back to pre colonization time periods, the continent we know as North America now was used to going back and forth. There was so much cultural exchange between indigenous groups that are now and what is considered the US and what is considered Mexico. There was exchange. That's why a lot of the foods are so similar. A lot of like so it insane to have like two No, I can't even go into this. Like yeah, that quote shook me, so warn me next time. There's more quotes like that. Okay, yeah, yeah.

14:09 Congressman John C. Box from Texas said, quote, the continuance of a desirable character of citizenship is the fundamental purpose of our immigration laws. Incendental to this are the avoidance of social and racial problems, the upholding of American standards of wages and living, and the maintenance of order. All of these purposes will be violated by increasing the Mexican population of the country. And quote the native is warned. Quote our great Southwest, it's not yours, bitch, right, what I mean? What do you mean? Our our great Southwest is rapidly creating for itself a new racial problem, as our old South did when it imported slave labor from Africa.

14:53 And what kind of fucking shit is this to say? Oh my god, while the agricultural businessmen wanted unrestricted Mexican immigration for their own benefit, they put them. Yes, they were, of course as racists. As a nativist, and they did express concerns that Mexican immigration would pose a threat to the quote American way of life. But still the agricultural businessmen argued that without Mexican labor, the whole industry would fall apart. Yeah, And the agri businessmen argued that they could control the Mexican population, so you know, there's nothing to worry about. Oh, because they're so dumb, they can be easily controlled, that's what they're saying. Yeah. One agricultural businessman said the following quote, if we could not control the Mexicans and they would take this country, it would be better to keep them out. But we can and do control them. And sadly they did because they had all the power, of course. Yeah. Yeah. The agricultural businessmen owned the land, They exploited Mexicans for the labor, and the Southwest socially segregated. Mexicans were repressed in all the ways they faced violence, were economically exploited, and so in the end, the agricultural business meant they got their way.

16:12 There was no quotas placed on Mexican immigration at this point. The legislators who were drafting the National Origins Act knew that without enforcement, all of the restrictions they placed on immigration would mean nothing. So three days after passing the Act, Congress established the Border Patrol within the Immigration Borough Bureau, within the Immigration Bureau of the Department of Labor. So what year is this. This was in nineteen twenty four. Still in nineteen twenty four? Is now the creation of borders? Yeah, so the National Origins Act passed and then the enforcement aspect of the act. Three days there is Border Patrol and they are at this point under the Department of Labor.

16:58 One million dollars was set aside for the of the Border Patrol. That's chump change now, baby. Yeah. They they had a small budget and stayed like that for a few years. H One major reason that the Border Patrol had difficulty expanding and getting more money was because Southerners were opposed to federal intervention when it came to anything having to do with the race. And one of the main reasons they didn't want any federal intervention was because black Southerners were protesting lunching during this time, and they're like, we don't want any federal intervention. We can't have them come sniffing around here. Yeah, we don't want. Yeah, exactly that.

17:41 And another issue for Border Patrol was that at the beginning, their directive directives were too broad and they had no actual authority as law enforcement in addition to their limited funds. But despite all of that, they were on duty at both the Mexican and Canadian board by July first, nineteen twenty four. The Canadian borderm surprise interesting huh yeah, and having no actual legal authority put Board patrol in a predicament because the officers would be guilty of assault if they used any amount of physical coersion to prevent a violation of reagion law. So they really couldn't do anything. Wow, I imagine if they have to stay that way. It's literally my next sentence. I think they got their shit together. Unfortunately, unfortunately, in December nineteen twenty four, Border patrol officers finally got uniforms.

18:40 They were just walking around on they were street closes before. Okay, kind of like Ice is doing today. What what years this nineteen fifty four? Twenty four? This is still nineteen twenty four? Oh should I jumped tway too? Four? I was like no, because the operation went back is nineteen fifty is yeah? Okay, nineteen twenty four, they got uniforms. Yeah, we're in the very incept Naster uniforms, and we're going to be the nineteen twenties and thirties for a while. Actually, don't even ta We're going to get into the thirties. And this part fascinating. I love adep dive. So yeah, they got their uniforms two months after in December, sorry in December, and then two months after that, in February nineteen twenty five, they were vested with authoritative powers to enforce the US immigration laws. Okay, And that was with the passage of the nineteen twenty five Act and also the Supreme Court decision in the case of Leu Moy v.

19:33 United States. According to the Act of February twenty seventh, nineteen twenty five, a border patrol officer was authorized to arrest any alien who, in his presence or view, is entering or attempting to enter the United States in violation of any law or regulation made in pursuance of law regulating the admission of quote aliens, and to take such alien immediately for examination before an immigrant inspect or other official having authority to exact I'm trying to say an aliens. I'm gonna say immigrants, but just know they use aliens here, and to take such alien immediately for examination before an immigrant inspector or other official having authority to examine aliens as to the rights to admission to the United States.

20:23 There's a lot of aliens. It's physically like, physically say that thing. I know people cannot be aliens. Stopping And how come they can say immigrant inspector. They don't say alien inspector, do they? I mean? Interesting? Okay. The Act also authorized for patrol officers to board and search for quote aliens on any vessel within the territorial waters of the United States railway cars, conveyance, or vehicle in which he believes immigrants are being brought into the United States, and such employees shall have power to execute any warrant or other process is by any officer under any law regulate regulating admission, exclusion, or expose explosion of immigrants. And they did use aliens, and just was started of seeing it, okay.

21:12 And the Lumoy Supreme Court decision determined that an alien is in the act of entry in the United States until he reaches his interior destination. So together, the Act and decision gave border patrol the power to interrogate, detain, and arrest any person they believe to be engaged in the act of legal entry, a valilation of US immigration law that extended from the moment on authorized immigrants cross the border until they reached wherever they were going. So basically they could get them wherever they wanted. Oh I see, okay. Basically that's what it means, because they could just say, you're lying about your destination, you know I because I say, well, if they get to their destination, then they're fine. But I guess they could just change that. They can just saying well, you're headed to say over there, so we can deport you. Yeah, okay, Meaning border patrol officers could chase quote unsanctioned. That's how Kelly again we're on a first name basis, that's how Kelly describes immigrants to enter the United States without quote permission, unsanctioned, unsanctioned. Yeah okay.

22:15 So this meant that border patrol officers could chase unsanctioned immigrants, search vessels beyond the border without warrant, arrest those they suspected of engaging in the active unlawful entry, and so the US Board Patrol in this way, you know, became the law enforcement wing of the US Immigration Service. Okay, that's a lot of power. Yeah and yeah, that was a bit of the legal aspects of how border Patrol became established. And let's now talk about the man and organization of the early border patrol. Okay, many of the men who first joined the Border Patrol were already working in the Immigration Service as mounted Chinese inspects in the Chinese Division. Yes, there was a Chinese division. I was about to say there was a Chinese division, like a division dedicated to Chinese hunting. Okay, oh my god, so disgusting, bleak very I didn't know that, Like I knew there was Chinese exclusian laws, but I didn't know there was like, you know, they were hunting them down, Like I didn't know that. Yeah. I thought we were the only hunted ones.

23:29 You know, we're all being hunted. And that's true now more than ever. Yeah. So many of the men worked as mounted Chinese inspectors or as Texas Rangers, or there were low income working in farms, but notably we're not landowners. And they also worked in other areas like construction and so on, working class basically. And then I rode a little blurb about the Mounted Chinese Inspectors because I was interested in learning a little bit more about them. So the Boundary Chinese Inspectors were established to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act along the Mexican and Canadian borders, and they monitored the border towns to apprehend undocumented Chinese immigrants. Wow, that's all I wrote. I'm sure there's more, right, Yeah.

24:20 And one of these men was Clifford Allen Perkins, who started his government work as a post office worker. Clifford Allen Perkins Perkins, Oh no, and Perkins, I didn't watching and yeah. So he started his government work as a post office worker and eventually worked as a mounted Chinese inspector and rose up the ranks to inspector in charge. And so when the Border Patrol was created, he became the chief of the Border Patrol under the Immigration Service. Okay, And one of the first things that Clifford did was divide the US Mexico border jurisdiction into three patrol districts. So he divided up the jurisdiction of Border Patrol. Who would be in charge of what area. Yeah. So this division, along with the lack of definitive directives, led to the three districts developing their own versions of border patrol like basically, yeah, so the offices became highly localized, regionalized, locally controlled, and vary from region to region. That doesn't sound good. Yeah.

25:33 The Los Angeles Border Patrol District went from the Pacific Ocean to about fifty miles east of Yuma, Arizona, and extended northward in California to San Luis Obispo. And then the El Paso Border Patrol started where the La District ended and extended to Devils River, Texas. And the San Antonio Border Patrol District went from the Devil's to the Gulf of Mexico in Brownswell, Texas. Of course Texas needed too, and these these districts were then divided into subdistricts. Even though they were all, you know, highly localized and regionalized, they all had one thing in common, which was a lack of training. This sounds like a recipe for disaster and violence. There you go, violence ding ding ding. Wow. Yeah, and I'm not surprised. Edwin Reeves, an early border patrol officer, said that all he receives from his training was a zero point thoty five single action revolver and they with the web belt and that was it. Wow, just a gun.

26:48 Here you go. And also in common among all these early border patrol officers, they're racism and zenophobia obviously, so they are racisms, you know, fabe and lack of training. Really just put a web them together. Fascinating, fantastic. One of these early border patrol officers was Jefferson Davis Milton, and he came to be known as the father of Border patrol, but a disgusting thing known yeah real. Jefferson was born on November seventh, eighteen sixty one, during the early months of the Civil War, to a large enslaver family.

27:31 Of course, he was named after one of his father's besties, the president of the Southern Confederacy Okay yep, and his father, John Milton, was the governor of Florida. But towards the end of the Civil War, when Jefferson was just a young child, he died from a self inflicted gunshot, and some said John ended his life because of the Confederacy losing the war, while others said it was due to a hunting accident. Oh so, who knows. Right after the war, the family lost their free and labor and were forced to work to fuel themselves. Oh no, losers, and teenage Jefferson didn't like that, so at eighteen he went west to Texas. I'm not working in these films. I'm too good for this. And he went to Texas where he promptly joined the Texas Rangers for a few years. Okay, of course. He then moved to New Mexico, where he worked as a sheriff and a peace officer before joining quote the hunt for Victorio and Geronimo and elicted the armed forces to find the Indian Wars. Okay, okay, wow, Like this man's entire existence is looking for non white people to hunt and kill. Yeah. Basically, he made his way through the Southwest, working different jobs again, like I said, usually in law enforcement before joining them Migration Service, which

29:05 again was then under the Labor department. Oh wow. A tradition of violence. Truly, truly, And he was sixty three at this point when he joined the Border Patrol. What the grit hire, old man, there's no retirement during this time. Now he got to work. He was from a working class background because his family lost all their money during the Civil War, rightfully so, and then they didn't have their free labor force to live off of, and so he became working class. He had to work, okay, And so he was sixty three, a sixt three year old border patrol agent. Yeah, And there was a lot of myth making yeah around border patrol and early border patrol officers, and so legends arose during Jefferson's long career, and he was known as a lone ranger type person. But really he just needed a job. He was sixty three and he needed isn't that dad, sixty three having to work as a border patrol Yeah. I think they were proud of it, I guess, but I think it's done. Yeah yeah.

30:08 And so yeah, with his smith making, it was often said that his pursuits would be his last. Like people would be like, you know, like, oh, there he goes off again to pursue someone. He might not come back this time. Oh you know, things like that. I mean, at sixty three, I would not expect him to come back. But yeah, I guess he kept coming back. He just loved hunting down brown people so much that he kept coming back. But then Jefferson would send a telegraph from whatever remote location he was at, saying, send two coffins and a doctor. I'm rolling my eyes. It was said that Jefferson always returned from his pursuits alive, while his opponents didn't. Oh real, uh gunslinger, mm hmm yeah. And he was often called a one man border patrol throwing up.

30:58 So this man who grew up owning enslaves, he owned people. That that's a disgusting thing to even say, you know, and laborer became an old ass fuck border patrol agent who loved killing people. No, let me see my thing. Sorry, this sense labor of black people who hunted the Native Americans in the name of war, who went after Chinese immigrants, often killed the migrants and bandits quote bandits right, because migrants were always labeled as bandits even when they were not right. He often killed the people he was pursuing, and he was celebrated by generations of border patrol agents. So life said, a history of violence. Traditions. Oh that's what we said, a tradition of violence. It sounds more the implication is worse and it's tradition. Yeah, yeah, it's worse. No, Yeah, then that's what I was saying in my head, but I didn't say it out loud, Okay, But yeah, it's about it's that tradition of violence that is celebrated by a border patrol. This legend of Jefferson as a loner and a social nomad contributed to the myth making of the board Patrol, whose origin is often painted as a quote hardy band of border law enforcement officers. In reality, they were just working classmen who needed jobs. Yeah, and what better job? And to hunt down brown people that they get to kill and then they celebrate it like of course, that was the perfect job for them. This reminds me of a video I mentioned a few episodes back.

32:28 I remember when, and even could have been during one of our feature in episodes that I remember, but I mentioned a TikTok. I saw someone who explained it much better than me, because it's only what I remember now off the top of my head. But they talked about how law enforcement and the police basically serves as a job filler for underemployed, uneducated men. Yeah yeah, yeah, and this you know that goes way back to these times eighteen hundreds. Yeah, I guess we're in nineteen five now, but still right right, there was barely any requirements, but because of the high turn of our rate, this led to lowering the requirements for hirings even more, which benefited the unemployed, working class white men from the border lands. Yeah, and one of these men was Doggy right. What Doggy right?

33:24 His name is dog It's dog I E wow? Okay dog or Doggy? Do you think it's dog? I don't know. I never heard of that before. What a wild name? I don't know. And I didn't even say quote doggie or anything. It just said like that was his name. So I'm assuming God give a name. Wow, No wonder he joined Borbitual with that name. And I'm just saying so. Yeah, Doggy right worked on off as a Texas ranger for brief periods, and he also worked selling gets in a movie theater, as a clerk, a chauffeur, and in construction before joining the Border Patrol. Wow. And others worked similar you know jobs, train operators in grocery stores. On non working class jobs. Only about twenty four percent of early Border Patrol officers worked in agriculture, and only about ten percent owned or operated farms, meaning they were average working class white men and viewed Mexican immigration as a labor competition.

34:33 Oh okay, hmm, so yet another thing to add to the end to the mix of like already racism, all these dynamics. Yeah, that's the word. Yeah. And these were the same men who opposed unrestricted Mexican immigration that the agricultural businessman, so the elite of their societies were fighting for. In the nineteen twenties, Texan labor union official said the following quote, I hope they never let another Mexican come to United States and quote the country would be a whole lot better off for the white laboring man if they weren't so many and words and Mexicans. Oh my god. Yeah.

35:18 And these were the men that later because these were the men that became border pituationis yes. Yeah, again not surprise yet still disgusted. Yeah. And while the white working classmen didn't get their way with Congress back then, they gained some power once they started working on the border patrol, since they would come to have power over the workforce of the elite, the Mexican laborers, the very people they viewed as taking their jobs away. Wow. And in the book, Kelly explained quote. The border patrols turned toward policing Mexicans was much more than a matter of simply servicing the interests of agribusiness in capitalist economic development. It was a matter of community, manhood, whiteness, authority, class, respect, belonging, brotherhood, and violence in the Greater Texas Mexico borderlands. So yeah, working in border patrol allowed these average working class white men to move up the societal ladder. They gained authority and respect I was going to say respect right now, because they were viewed as white trash by the leak. Yeah.

36:31 And so in this sense, they expanded the boundaries of whiteness. Right. So, now whiteness was not only the elite, the agribusiness men, it also included them them. Yeah. And so not only did this dynamic, I guess, expand the boundaries of whiteness, it also came to define the differences between the whites and the non whites in the Southwest, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, Yeah. Basically it came to equate illegal quote illegal immigrants as Mexican these racial dynamics, yeah, and separated them from their white orbital right people that were punting them down, stopping them from entering. So yeah, yeah, and then I have one more quote from the book that kind of helped explain this, you know, better than I could explain it. O quote. The project of enforcing immigration restrictions placed border patrol officers at what police scholar David Bailey describes as the cutting edge of the state's knife in terms of enforcing new boundaries between whites and non whites. End quote. Yeah, right, right, yes. An important piece to this project that whiteness in the borderlands was the few Mexican Americans who joined the early border patrol.

37:52 Of course they did, of course they did. While white border patrol officers tended to be from lower income, working class backgrounds, Mexican Americans who joined tended to be from middle and upper class backgrounds. I'm rolling my eyes so hard. Of course they were, because they're trying to what's it called integrate themselves into whiteness. And this is the status symbol of whiteness. If you get to enforce the laws of whiteness, yeah, onto the people that are not your people, because you're separating yourself from them. Yeah. We can just end right here because you some raize my next few pages. Oh no, yeah, that's basically it short version and now stick around for the long version. In the nineteen twenty nine roster of Border Patrol personnel, there were six officers listed with Spanish last names. I'm sorry, I'm making such a disgusted face at them. It's disgusting behavior. Yeah. Among these men were Jesse Perez and Pete Torres. Jesse Perez, who was known as a legend within Border Patrol. I was gonna look more into him and then forgot a legend.

38:58 Oh I wish way. Yeah, he was the son of a Texas ranger because of course he was, Oh my god, fucking and he was actually married to one of the founding families of the Rio Grand City mm okay, and his father in law also worked as a Texas Ranger, sheriff, and US marshall. I don't know if he held all these jobs at once. Uh no, no, No, probably went back and yeah, because that's that's what happened a lot. Yeah, yes, revolving door between all these different law enforcement agencies. Yes, yes, so yeah, his family, this family was entrenched in law enforcement and police scene and Pete Torres was a part of an influential family who identified as Spanish American. Oh okay, they were Yeah, they were in Mexican, they were Spanish. Yeah.

39:44 And there was another officer listed in the ninety twenty nine roster with with Spanish last names that identified as partly of the Spanish race. That's how it was written in the whatever roster anything anything to not say Mexican. Yeah, And it is important to note that while there were founding families in the Southwest who were Spanish, they tended to live in the northern areas of the southwestern states. And we're talking about the borderlands, so the southernmost parts of these states, right, Okay. And I'm mentioning this because I made a video about this on TikTok and someone tried to argue with me about, like these are these were these people were in Texas before it was even Texas.

40:26 They're Spanish, blah blah blah. But that's not the reality that it's just not factual. Yeah. So yeah, like I said, there was some you know, straight up Spanish heritage people, but they were not in these areas as. The truth is that in these areas mostly they were Mestizo, which then yeah, makes them not Spanish, making them Mexican. Or Mexican American. Yeah, they were now in today's terms, they were straight up Mexican Americans like me and you. Yeah, like a typical Mexican American, you know, with no traceable or prominent Spanish history. Yeah. Yeah, Like you said, there were mastisos, but they want to be Spanish Spanish at all. Yeah, but what was it? Partially partially Spanish, partly of the Spanish race. Yeah, okay, but there was a deliberate push by middle and upper class Mexican Americans to separate themselves from the newly arrived Mexican immigrants. We're not like them, So they started identifying more with their Spanish side and calling themselves Spanish Americans again, when in reality they were not right. And this identification as Spanish continued generation after generation, to the point that many Mexican Americans who happened in New Mexico for generations to this day identify as Hispanic, Hispano, no Mexicano, or a Spanish origin. In a commentary piece from twenty twenty four, journalist Lauren Lifke recalls when she was applying for college, she was confused when the application

41:58 asked her to imper her specific background and so the options were Cuban, Mexican slash Chicano, Puerto Rican, Latin American, and other. And she had only ever identified as Hispanic. So she texted her mom. She's like, hey, what are we and then her mom's like, of Spanish origin from Spain, and then she's like that doesn't sound right, right, So she's taking it upon herself to learn more about New Mexican history and her own ancestry, and she you know, came to learn about, you know, this deliberate push to stinction separate themselves from Mexican. Yeah, but I thought that was so interesting because obviously I don't know what it's like, you know, as a first gen I don't know what it's like to be you know, of having been here a long time. Yeah, yeah, like generation after generation. And then at what point do you do you lose the Mexican part of Mexican American and you're just American. I mean, these people didn't even they skipped Mexican and they just went Spanish American. Right. So, and I'll get into this like just now. But it was also in an effort to protect to protect themselves from discrimination. But yes, it doesn't help to align yourself with whiteness. How many times have we stay tried it? But it doesn't work, especially when we've talked about like school segregation and like anything.

43:21 To not be grouped with black people is how they were finding the segregation. Yeah, because they wanted to be included as white. And sadly, when you have agencies like Border Patrol who've always looked for people that look like a certain way, you're never going to be white like wow, yeah, yeah. So yeah, back to Mexican Americans in the borderlands the nineteen twenties, Spanish Americans, well, yeah, they wanted the ones that joined Bord Patrol. The League of United Latin American Citizens or lu LAC, which we have mentioned before. Yeah, during this time, they're very different they now woman. Yeah, but they helped promote Mexican American integration into mainstream American society, and most of their members were middle and upper class. Yeah, and that was the problem that a lot of Chicanos and Dwaite Chicanismo grew into its own separate group from LULAC.

44:19 It was the reason that people weren't identifying as upper middle class because they weren't and they didn't want to conform to whiteness. They were like, we're not that, like we know that. Yeah, that was a huge aspect of like you said, the Chicano movement and lu LAC members held American institutions, political philosophy, and capitalism and high esteem. But they didn't like that they weren't allowed to fully participate in these things because they were being discriminated against because they were you know, they were racialize as Mexican because they were right. American to them wasn't right because they were, Yeah, And instead of challenging the black and white racial hierarchy of the region, they decided to appeal to whiteness to protect themselves from discrimination. According to Lulac, which is what you said earlier, but you know to my notes, so I had to say it right, right.

45:10 According to Lulac, it was the association of Mexican Americans with the colored racist, which really just meant black people, right, that prevented them from gaining a full access to white American society. So they wanted to distinguish themselves from black people and newly arrived Mexican immigrants, and they started to push to define themselves as Spanish Americans. Well, I want to say during operation they maintained this line of thinking for a while. This went from generation of the generation. That's why I had that. I meant Lulac specifically. Oh yeah, this because during operation during Operation went Back, they were for the deportations. For Oh no, am I thinking of Mexican repatriation one of the two. You're probably thinking of growth, Yeah, because Mexican reprepretation was in the thirties, right, Yeah, and there's not long after the time period we're talking about. Yea.

46:03 Lulac as an organization supported it at first until citizens started being deported as well. And it was the like you said, the Chicano movement, which was well prominent in Roads in the sixties, where New Mexicans who have been here for generations started moving away from the Spanish American label and started identifying in Chicago. And I don't know if this was when luck also I think it, but yeah, and I believe that's the case because and I don't know when exactly, because it wasn't it recently like in the two thousands that they apologized for their racism against black people, Like yeah, I don't remember exactly what year, but they have apologized for it. Which you know, yeah, it doesn't make anything they did right, but at least you know that that's what they do, what they do anymore. Yeah, no, and yeah, many LULAC members felt that the newly arrived Mexican immigrants threatened their goals, so they advocated for limiting Mexican immigration and supported increased border enforcement and for middle class Mexican americanment to join the born Patrol. I hate this. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, and like I said before, lu LAC today is different than lu LAC then. And so this is a very interesting like the because today you see people in the protests that were happening against ICE and people like in the faces of Latino ICE agents, like how could you do this? But there's a long

47:33 it's how, Yeah, this is how. This is how. There's a very long history. And there's something about like a uniform that makes someone proud. And I maintain this belief that any uniform, unless it's the post office, it's not something to be proud of. But like people look at it and the like, oh, look at my son, like my daughter. They're in the army or they're in Borbagel, Like look at this uniform. They're doing good things, but like, no, but but when people when you saw those or when I saw those protests and I saw them yelling at the vices like you betrayed, like your people, Like this goes back to even the inception, way back. Yeah, yeah, then and now it's an appeal to whiteness, to power, to assimilation, and just like then, it doesn't pay to do that. No, no, you will always be seen, you will always be rationalized as other if you are not white. Yeah, and this brings me back to Pete Taurus. He was the exemplary of this dynamic of you know, he was the embottoment, the embodiment. That's better, that's a better word.

48:43 He was then bbottoment of all this so embodiment I said it wrong the first time. Uh. Yeah. Pete hated being called Mexican, and uh, one day an acquaintance of Pete started making fun of him by calling him Mexican, and in response, Pete pulled out his revolver and he shot at his and at his legs. Being called the Mexican right, and he was like, I'm not Mexican, I'm Spanish American. Wow. Yeah, And then I really like the way that Kelly described this quote Indie Border Patrol, and through Mexican exclusion, he Pete and the others literally shot their way into whiteness. That's so violent, right, And the earlier I talked about the working class white men viewing Mexican liverers as labor competition, the racism and enophobia embedded in the Southwest, and how the lack of direct rules and training led to different border patrol districts to become highly localized and regionalized, which led to the policing new Mexicans.

49:45 What a summary. Wow, yes, yes, and this was you know, hugely because the border patrol agents grew up discriminating in othering Mexicans, and as men, this othering became their job, and their violence against me scans became sanctioned, state sanctioned violence. Jeanie piet and fred D Albini were early members of the Border Patrol and as children they used to gather rocks and pile them up so they could throw them at the Mexican kids during recess. And so these kids that used to throw rocks at Mexican kids for fun later became Border patrol agents. And Kelly wrote quote years later, as officers of the United States Border Patrol. They traded their rocks for shotguns and converted their child's play into police practice. So it's not wild. It's not wild. It's predictable.

50:45 But like, just reading it like that, I'm like, I don't know, it brings up it makes you feel feeling yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like I don't know, anger, but then yeah, disappointment. I'm not angry, I'm disappointed. The history an inception of border patrol, And so I'm gonna leave off there, and next week we'll get into some discriminatory and violent tactics of the early bar patrol and probably some more history that I can't remember right now, but okay, I will probably include I'm excited, but not excited, you know what I mean, I know what you mean. Yeah, all right, Well that was a fascinating way too. In the end, learn that the same kids who hated Mexicans then became border Patruegians.

51:36 Like yeah, and likewise today not us saying the same thing. Yeah, I mean time in secular like sometimes say, I just saw some posts I think I don't remember it was if it was a subtact that I'm subscribed to, or if it was someone on threads but basically like history doesn't repeat it, so it's remix where it's like there was an old version of that and now there's a new version of the same thing, and ye remix. Yeah that sounds about right, because that's what we're seeing back then and today. And I don't like it, not one bit.

52:17 But wow, thank you Carmen for working hard on these notes. So hard. It's so hard for me to sit down write notes, it really is. She just not like me. It's also hard for me to sit down and read the book. Both are very hard for you. Yeah, yeah, anything you want to say before we end or now, just that right now at the time we're recording, it is September fifteenth, twenty twenty five, and there has been here in the US protests wherever CSPES is located, protests against the dictatorship. In the Saladora and Indo as well, there has been protests against the dictatorship of Buckle, people holding signs like the safety comes with the Cost, people holding pictures of their loved ones who have been disappeared in prisons. Because as you know, if this is your first episode listening, this is and and maybe you're not aware of buckle and go back and listen to those episodes we did. There's a long history of corruption, a long history of again disappearing where it's like, yes, two things going to be true and bald is safer and yes at what costs? And there's you know a lot of people that have been doing work talking about this.

53:36 But today there's a lot of protests because it today is the independence day for and how can you claim to be independent when so many of your population is behind bars arbitrarily arrested and detained and then disappeared, right, right, So there's nation like there's wide protests in because then you get the people's and there has been for the past several years. Yes, yeah, today is just another protest against uh him, But I mean the they have been protesting this on Independence Day for the past several years. Yes, yes, exactly. Yeah, it's not new, and I think right now there's more people realizing and learning that this isn't He's not a good thing for especially in the recent months with coming out with Trump. Yeah, during the I guess we could say what kidnapping, I forgot what word people are using.

54:37 But of Kim right duringing, I mean, and it's not really deporting because following any of the country right right, yeah, and this is the taking of migrants into a third place, uh like a different country completely and then signed a deal with you know Trump, right And from that, so from those events, people are realizing, oh, it's not who I thought he was. Yeah, some people after that happened, some people started waking up and saying, wait, maybe he's not. It's not a good thing. But there have been people in and in the diaspora that have been speaking out against him for a long time, and today is just another manifestation of that. Both seas past in the US is doing it and then in activists or testing against I mean so much. The state of Exception is still going on. There's still you know, detained a bunch of people, dispairing them into prison. So that's been happening today. That does him recording and solidarity with our fellow stabs mm hmm. Yeah.

55:52 Also the craziest thing, I mean, I just don't under like, I don't understand like, oh, dictator dictatorship for the but not for me like Trump here. Yeah, that's what we have been feeling from a lot of the diaspora that they have been in the protests in l a uh denouncing you know, Trump's author authoritativeness. Uh. Yet at the same time they have been out there caping and kissing asks for And I'm like, which is it, man? You either support authoritarian governments or you don't. Right. You can't pick and choose, right, And yeah, I think that was the last thing I wanted to add. Okay, Also a reminder for anyone who wants to see a line for Spooky Tales will be a spooky focused We are going to be in Yakima on November first at the Kukui is Going to Get You events November first, seven pm at the Baptist Event Center in Yakama, and we'll be there Latinos again, spooky shit will be there, and there's also going to be any spooky market, different stuff, fun stuff is spooky stuff. It's gonna be a good time.

57:17 And I will put the link in the show notes I forgot last week. Wow, I'll do it this time. And yeah. Other than that, we hope that this was one last Editoria unknown for you. Bye bye. Astorias Are Known is produced by Carmen and Christina. Researched by Carmen and Christina, edited by Christina. You can find sources for every episode at Estoria unknown dot com and in our show notes. Creating the podcast has 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 She studied as an own podcast