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Political awareness of the tensions in U.S.-Mexico relations is rising in the twenty-first century; the American history of its treatment of illegal immigrants represents a massive failure of the promises of the American dream. This is the untold history of the United States Border Patrol from its beginnings in 1924 as a small peripheral outfit to its emergence as a large professional police force that continuously draws intense scrutiny and denunciations from political activism groups. To tell this story, MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Kelly Lytle Hernández dug through a gold mine of lost and unseen records and bits of biography stored in garages, closets, an abandoned factory, and in U.S. and Mexican archives. Focusing on the daily challenges of policing the Mexican border and bringing to light unexpected partners and forgotten dynamics, Migra! reveals how the U.S. Border Patrol translated the mandate for comprehensive migration control into a project of policing immigrants and undocumented “aliens” in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.
Price: $29.95
Pages: 336
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Series: American Crossroads
Publication Date:
03 May 2010
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520266414
Format: Paperback
“A useful resource for any scholar seeking to understand the complex dynamics of race, migration, and law in the twentieth century.”
“Migra! stands as a major contribution, successfully revising our understanding of border policing.”
“An interesting and valuable book.”
“A thorough and substantive study of the United States Border Patrol, or la migra in colloquial Spanish.”
“An insightful history on the Border Patrol.”
“The book contributes to our understanding of the ways in which American immigration law enforcement was very much a product of U.S. foreign relations with Mexico.”
“Overall this book lays out an ambitious agenda and provides well-narrated documentary support for its arguments. . . . A valuable work.”
"The most thorough history of the Border Patrol to date."
“Migra! is undoubtedly a valuable book, especially as a storehouse of information and as an introduction to a new, international perspective on American immigration. Sections of it will undoubtedly become the foundations of research that will continue to broader our understanding many years into the future.”
“If you had to choose one book as a starting place for an intelligent discussion about immigration issues, you would do well to begin with Migra! . . . The story that emerges in Migra! is surprisingly complex and nuanced. It was enlightening to learn that we have been doing the same dance around these issues for almost 100 years.”
Kelly Lytle Hernández is Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Associate Director of the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Map of the U.S.-Mexico Border Region
Introduction
Part One: Formation
1. The Early Years of the U.S. Border Patrol
2. A Sanctuary of Violence: The U.S. Border Patrol in the Greater Texas-Mexico Borderlands
3. The California-Arizona Borderlands
4. Mexico’s Labor Emigrants, America’s Illegal Immigrants: The Rise of Mexican Emigration Control
Part Two: Transformation
5. A New Beginning: World War II and the U.S. Border Patrol
6. The Corridors of Migration Control
7. Uprising: A Farmers’ Rebellion
Part Three: Operation Wetback and Beyond
8. The Triumphs of {apos}54
9. “The Day of the Wetback Is Over”: Migration Control and Crime Control in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Map of the U.S.-Mexico Border Region
Introduction
Part One: Formation
1. The Early Years of the U.S. Border Patrol
2. A Sanctuary of Violence: The U.S. Border Patrol in the Greater Texas-Mexico Borderlands
3. The California-Arizona Borderlands
4. Mexico’s Labor Emigrants, America’s Illegal Immigrants: The Rise of Mexican Emigration Control
Part Two: Transformation
5. A New Beginning: World War II and the U.S. Border Patrol
6. The Corridors of Migration Control
7. Uprising: A Farmers’ Rebellion
Part Three: Operation Wetback and Beyond
8. The Triumphs of {apos}54
9. “The Day of the Wetback Is Over”: Migration Control and Crime Control in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index