Hernandez, Kelly Lytle. Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010). A leading American historian on race, policing, immigration, and incarceration in the United States, Kelly Lytle Hernandez’s Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol tells the story of how Mexican immigrant workers emerged as the primary target of the United States Border Patrol and how, in the process, the United States Border Patrol shaped the history of race in the United States. Migra! also explores social history, including the dynamics of Anglo-American nativism, the power of national security, and labor-control interests of capitalistic development in the American southwest. In short, Migra! explains …show more content…
Officers would patrol the political boundary, known as line watches, between the two nations. These line watches were ineffective because of the size of their jurisdictions and the sheer size of the borderlands between Mexico and the United States. Soon it became clear to Border Patrol officers that most illegal migrant activity developed in the greater borderlands regions than along the boundary between Mexico and the United States. “Instead of enforcing the boundary between the US and Mexico, BP officers patrolled backcountry trails and conducted traffic stops on borderland roadways to capture unsanctioned Mexican immigrants as they travelled from the border to their final …show more content…
focuses on the nationalization of the United States Border Patrol during and after World War II. Due to the perceived threat of emigrants from any nation, Border Patrol resources were amplified and law enforcement personnel was diverted toward the Mexican and United States borderlands. With increased patrol of the borderlands, many Mexican migrants were unable to cross the border for seasonal work. This created a shortage of Mexican labor that United States agri-businessmen could not afford. The Bracero Program would serve as a binational program to manage the cross-border migration of Mexican laborers. United States labor officials approached the Mexican Department of Migration about a controlled and managed system of legal migration. The Bracero Program offered Mexicans the opportunity to legally work in the United States. Braceros were healthy, landless, and surplus male agricultural workers from areas in Mexico not experiencing a labor shortage. Braceros met the labor need to American agri-businessmen, but Hernandez counters that the Bracero Program was a system of labor exploitation, a project of masculinity and modernization, and a sit of gendered
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
The book, “Y no se lo trago la tierra” by Thomas River and the article “Immigrants: The Story of a Bracero” author David Bacon both represent a historical time. In the year 1942 the U.S and Mexico negotiated an agreement that was known as the “Bracero Program”. This agreement gave Mexicans the opportunity to come to the U.S and enhance a better life. On the other hand, for Americans it was an assistance they required to keep the country going after the World War II. This need took the U.S to do a complete turnaround. Before they were trying to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the country and now they had to open their doors to them. Thus, U.S was in need of Mexican laborers to help supply soldiers with food and keeping the agriculture growing. Moreover, a vast number of Migrant Farm Workers come every year and are spread all across the countries taking positions that Americans would never tolerate due to hard conditions, the insufficient wage, and the physically challenging labor they have to face. All this leads to a hard historical time for both counties as Thomas Rivera and David Bacon illustrate their protagonist points of view throughout stories and testimonials of the experience and struggles they were faced with during this time.
Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire a History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc, 2000.
Martinez, Oscar. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 232.
In “The Border Patrol State” Leslie Silko makes accusations of the border patrol’s mistreatment of American citizens of Mexican decent, making the argument with almost evidence. Silko, a critically acclaimed poet, sees the border patrol as a governmental assembly addicted to interrogation, torture, and the murder of those they see fit.
United States Border Patrol has been around since 1904 enforcing and regulating laws under the immigration and Nationality Act. U.S. border patrol is now under the Department of Homeland Security, which was created as a response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Over the years, their jurisdiction and missions have changed to better protect the safety of nation. Although border patrol is a need for any nation, their extensive acceptations to constitutional laws can often be taken advantage of. The mission of the U.S. border patrol should be to prevent illegal aliens, which are a threat to American society, from reaching their purpose. Frequently, their purpose can be confused or executed in a bias manner.
The problem is so comprehensive that the border patrol can’t handle it. Therefore a group of, mainly, senior citizens have gathered to help the border patrol. The seniors are often former police officers or soldiers.
Ngai, Mae M. 2004 “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America” Publisher: Princeton University Press.
“Together with other law enforcement officers, the Border Patrol helps maintain borders that work—facilitating the flow of legal immigration and goods while preventing the illegal trafficking of people and contraband” (Overview). Or so their official website states, but evidence would suggest that they are part of a corrupt and violent system; they have dehumanized themselves due to their existence as an extension of government regulations; they have been placed at the border to guard it from the illegals who try to break through to the American side and some abuse that power. The government pays extremely generous sums for their operations, but their effectiveness and moral practices have been questionable. The victims—those apprehended during their journey across the border and the families of those killed by the officers (among many others)—claim that the BP exists outside of the law, but it is also true that not all officers violate human rights, not all go rogue. What determines who becomes the conductor of power is the hiring process as well as the honesty and diligence of the administrative personnel. The qualifications to become a border patrol officer (as listed on the official PB website) are
As long as civilizations have been around, there has always been a group of oppressed people; today the crucial problem facing America happens to be the discrimination and oppression of Mexican immigrants. “Mexican Americans constitute the oldest Hispanic-origin population in the United States.”(57 Falcon) Today the population of Mexican’s in the United States is said to be about 10.9%, that’s about 34 million people according to the US Census Bureau in 2012. With this many people in the United States being of Mexican descent or origin, one would think that discrimination wouldn’t be a problem, however though the issue of Mexican immigrant oppression and discrimination has never been a more prevalent problem in the United States before now. As the need for resolve grows stronger with each movement and march, the examination of why these people are being discriminated against and oppressed becomes more crucial and important. Oppression and Anti-discrimination organizations such as the Freedom Socialist Organization believe that the problem of discrimination began when America conquered Mexican l...
Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, N.J. [u.a.: Princeton Univ. Press, 2004. Print.
What would it be like to wake up everyday knowing you would get bullied, mistreated, and/or abused just because of where you were born? Discrimination still exists! “Discrimination remains and there is an increase in hate crimes against Hispanics, Latinos and Mexican-Americans, as one of the perceived symbols of that discrimination, the U.S.-Mexico Border Fence, nears completion. Instead of pulling together in these difficult times, we may see a greater polarization of attitudes” (Gibson). But why are hate crimes increasing towards Latin and Hispanic aliens and what types of discrimination are occurring against them? Understanding violence towards the Hispanic and Latin alien is divided into three main classes; the difference between legal and illegal aliens, the attacks and effects, and the point of view of different people towards aliens.
War creates all kinds of hardships on everyone involved whether it is overseas on the front line or right in our own backyard. During World War II one hardship faced in the United States was the lack of laborers to work the land and other taxing jobs here in the United States. The solution, bring migrant workers from Mexico to complete the work; otherwise known as the Bracero Program. What is the American and Mexican history leading up to the Bracero program? Were these workers paid fair, were they treated fair, and did they benefit in the long term?
4. Ernesto Galarza, "Life in the United States for Mexican People: Out of the Experience of a Mexican" from Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, 56th Annual Session, University of Chicago Press, 1929.
The Mexican-American border barriers were originally built as part of a three-pronged approach to diminish illicit contraband, drug smuggling, and illegal immigrants. This operation would curtail drug transport routes from Central America. Three headquarters were established along the Unites States border: operation gatekeeper in California, Operation Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona. These strategically placed headquarters have done an outstanding job securing our borders the past decade, however with drug smuggling on the rise, they require much more support from the government. Regrettably, adversaries of the barriers claim that they are more of a political gambit to instigate foreign affairs and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. These opponents see the United States-Mexico barrier as an unsuccessful deterrent to illegal immigrants and unwanted drugs that ultimately and inaptly endangers the security and wellbeing of immigrants seeking refuge in the States.