La Migra! The Nuanced History of the United States Border Patrol
Hernández’s La Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol explores the many complexities in the formation of the Border Patrol. In modern-day politics, the agency is often politicized and viewed in a sort-of black-and-white way. Hernández shows that this is far from the truth一 it is much more nuanced. The agency’s history had once been boxed away, left to decay in old storehouses. La Migra! brings these texts to the forefront and, according to the author, “are at the center of this book’s narrative and present a complicated portrait of the Border Patrol’s rise in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands” (Hernández 2010, 18).
The individual stories that Hernández highlights are at the center of the agency’s history. One of these stories details the patrol experiences of the Cottingham brothers. Both Jack and Jim Cottingham served as U.S. Border Patrol agents. One day, the brothers were involved in an altercation with an alcohol smuggler; Jim was shot and in a fit of vengeance, Jack “killed every person who came in sight on the Mexican side of the river during that time” (72). The story of the Cottingham brothers exemplifies the violence and division that took root on the borderlands during the Border Patrol’s formative years. Their individual actions contributed to the overarching racialization that took place along the border (85). The concept of the ‘illegal’ in regard to the U.S.-Mexico border became increasingly synonymous with those who were deemed ‘Mexican.’
Perspectives from Mexican officials are also highlighted in La Migra! Building from archival information from the Archivo Histórico del Instituto Nacional de Migración (AHINM), Hernández discusses steps taken by the Mexican Department of Migration to limit illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico (100). Inspector Fernando Félix’s observations are noted; he stated that coyotes would often exploit Mexicans who were leaving the country (112). He also discussed the checkpoints established by the Mexican Department of Migration to prevent Mexican nationals from leaving. Félix’s accounts show that border policing was not just an effort made by the United States Border Patrol, but also by Mexico, even in its formative years. This would continue further into the twentieth century. In the 1940s, agricultural businessmen went as far as suggesting using the Mexican military to prevent Mexicans from crossing into the U.S. (128). This came as more and more Mexican laborers sought to become braceros.
Migra! helps fill a gap in the historiography regarding the Border Patrol. Its history prior to Hernández’s work had not yet been fully examined. By highlighting the stories of agents and individuals in both the United States and Mexico, a more complete view of the agency is established. Overall, Migra! shows that “the U.S. Border Patrol took many peculiar and forgotten paths to its now familiar concentration in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands” (248),
Reference
Hernández, Kelly Lytle. Migra! : A History of the U.S. Border Patrol. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010.
