The forgotten story of the Border Patrol, an engine of chaos for 100 years

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Support our nonprofit journalism]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     May 28, 2024 Hi, I'm Tim Murphy, a senior reporter here at Mother Jones. I want to tell you about the strangest item at the National Border Patrol Museum in El Paso, R.A.D, the War-on-Drugs robot. R.A.D., which is short for “Robot Against Drugs,” is 4-feet-5-inches tall and weighs 350 pounds, with the body of a lamppost and a silver trapezoidal head with big googly eyes that looks like Wall-E and ET had a baby. Next to it, in a glass frame, is an internal Justice Department memo announcing some of the robot's key attributes, which included a water pistol as a sidearm, "to teach children not to play with guns." I went to the museum this spring because [I was chasing a myth](. The border has become a defining figure in American politics, both in policy and in prose. People talk about it in existential terms. "If you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country," Donald Trump likes to say. But we have not had a US Border Patrol for a lot longer than we’ve had one. What is now a sprawling and scandal-plagued force of 20,000 people, with blimps and boats and decommissioned robots, had to be created, and someone had to create it. I thought there must be a story there, [and there was](. The Border Patrol, which turns 100 today, was born out of migrant panics, drug wars, and clashes between saber-rattling states and the federal government. It was an era of mass deportations, suspensions of civil liberties, vigilante murders, and calls for an invasion of Mexico. The agency, and the landmark immigration reform bill that nudged it into existence in May 1924, were backed by eugenicist politicians who feared a Great Replacement by “undesirable” immigrants. The story of the Border Patrol’s founding offers a lesson for the century that followed, and a rejoinder to the agency’s modern myth: Chaos is not just the absence of a border; it is also the consequence of trying to maintain one. Tracing the agency’s origins took me on a [whirlwind historical tour,]( from the anti-Chinese campaigns that compelled the federal government to begin restricting migration, to the Mexican Revolution, and the Red Scare. At the center of it all was a forgotten lawmaker, a cowboy-turned-congressman whose fiery floor speeches and demands for the government to protect ranchers like himself could hardly feel more relevant today. [Read the full piece here](. —Tim Murphy Advertisement [House Bookshop Ad]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [This Supreme Court Term, Health and Safety Are on the Line]( New rulings will reshape laws on guns, abortion, emergency care, and clean air. BY PEMA LEVY MOTHER JONES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE   How about something different? That’s how we’ve been thinking about things lately, because when it comes to democracy and journalism, two things we care deeply about, crisis has become [the new normal](, and it’s time to try doing something new. We merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting. It’s such a [strong pairing](, and it’s been inspiring. So instead of all the doom and gloom in the news these days, and thanks to a reader’s comment, we’re focusing on our real sense of optimism as we kick off our first big push [for the donations we need]( since taking that exciting, but also kind of scary, step forward. There’s more in “[Less Dreading, More Doing](,” but if you just want to feel the excitement like we do, here’s video correspondent Garrison Hayes in a video from late last year that we’re just now sharing widely. And here’s [a link to pitch in]( if you can. [Donate]( [Trending] [Not all votes are created equal]( BY MOTHER JONES   [Royce White—Steve Bannon protege who called our reporter a "cuck"—endorsed by Minnesota GOP for Senate]( BY JACOB ROSENBERG   [Texas is letting a maternal-mortality skeptic investigate maternal mortality]( BY NINA MARTIN   [These young Alaskans are suing the state to stop a $39B gas pipeline]( BY DHARNA NOOR Advertisement [House Donations Ad]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [The Border Patrol is an engine of crisis—and has been since the beginning]( The troubled law enforcement agency turns 100. Meet the forgotten cowboy-congressman who pushed it into existence. BY TIM MURPHY Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755