Secure Your Copy Migra!: A History Of The U.S. Border Patrol Developed By Kelly Lytle Hernández Made Available In Book

LA MIGRA! The history of border patrol imported the borderlands deeply rooted racial divide, converting Mexicans as a weak “wetback, brown faced” man looking for work early on and then as a “maniac, criminal” involved in crime and drug trade.
I was interested in this book after hearing that the author was awarded a MacArthur grant for her book which “challenges longheld beliefs about the origins, ideology, and evolution of incarceration and immigrant detention practices in the United States.
” But I found the book too theory heavy for my tastes and stopped reading, But I did like the way she started the book:

Spoken Its a bird!
Its a plane!
No man, its a wetback.

sung He cam from the sky, but he is not a plane,
He came in his spaceship from Krypton,
And by the looks of him, hes not American.

Hes someone like me undocumented,
So the migrant should not work
Because even though it hurts, Superman is an illegal.

Hes a journalist, and I am too
He didnt serve in the army what a bum!
He is white, has blue eyes and is wellformed
Im darkskinned, chubby and short.

But in my homeland I already marched
With

the coyote I paid when I crossed.


He didnt serve in the military,
He doesnt pay taxes and he wants to pass judgement,
He doesnt have diamonds or a license to fly,
Ill bet he doesnt even have a social security card,

We need to kick Superman out of here,
And if its possible, send him back to Krypton,
Where is the emigration authority
Whats the news, Mr, Racism, in the nation
For all I know they dont fine him for flying,
But on the contrary, they declare hes Superman,

Jorge Lerma “Superman is an illegal alien”

Toward the end of the Great Depression, DC Comics launched its fantastic tale of an orphaned infant alien who grew up to become an American hero named Superman.
The Superman saga begins with the young heros dramatic arrival on earth, Just moments before the destruction of his home planet, Kyypton, Supermans parents rocket their infant son toward salvation in Kansas.
Adopted by a childless but moral and Godfearing couple, Superman spends his early years as nothing more than an average AngloAmerican boy coming of age in rural America.
But beneath his external appearance, he is different, Unlike his neighbors, Superman can fly, melt steel, and see through walls, And, unlike his neighbors, Superman is an illegal alien,

Thirtyone years before Superman landed in American folklore, the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of.
This law required all immigrants entering the United States to pass through and official port of entry, submit themselves to inspection, and receive official authorization to legally enter the United States.
Dropping from the sky and failing to register with the U, S. Immigration authorities, Superman entered the United States without authorization, According to U. S. Immigration law, the incorruptible leader of the Justice League of America was an illegal immigrant, Yet the tale of Superman evolved free of any hint or consideration of his illegal status, Surely, Superman was just a fantasy and, as such, the character and narrative were not subject to the basic realities of U.
S. Immigration restrictions. But in the same years that Supermans popularity soared, the United States became a nation deeply divided over the issue of illegal immigration.
From congress to school boards, Americans decried an “immigrant invasion” and a loss of control over the countrys borders.
These debates swirled around the issue of unsanctioned Mexican immigration at the U, S. Mexico border. By the mids, vigilantes were patrolling the border, and congress was hosting explosive debates about how to resolve the socalled wetback program.
As the issue of unauthorized Mexican immigration rippled across the political American landscape, Chicano activist and songwriter Jorge Lerma asked his listeners to consider the irony of Supermans enormous popularity.
“Its a bird. Its a plane. No man, its a wetback!” Shouted Lerma, But few people took note that the iconic Man of Steel was an illegal immigrant,

Lermas provocative interrogation of Supermans forgotten illegal immigrant was a critique of the U, S. Border Patrols nearly exclusive focus on policing Mexican immigrant workers despite many other possible subjects and methods of immigration law enforcement pgs.
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A really good read considering the times we're seeing, Painstakingly researched and illuminating history of a little understood piece of America's broken immigration policy, Kelly Hernandez goes to excruciating depth to investigate the creation and evolution of the US border patrol.
She even combs through mildewed records found inside a forgotten Mexican warehouse to bolster her case, For anyone researching the subject, this is an essential read,

But I only gave three due to the dense, dry text, Writing this book was surely a labor of love, and unfortunately so is reading it, I estimate the text could be reduced byand still tell the same story, If you only have a passing interest in the subject, this probably isn't the book for you.
Adequate but somewhat muddled, dry and lacking in more recent history, While at times I appreciated the authors dry and academic style it made for a challenging and dull read.
No, I don't want a sexy narrative or personal anecdotes but I have certainly red more engaging histories that still sick to the facts A People's History.
. . come to mind.

Additionally I would have preferred a more linear telling out a more predictable/consistent jumping between time periods as the structure was less than ideal for me.
Finally, the more detailed history essentially stops inwith the only information about the period after that covered in a brief epilogue.
While I appreciate that this is "A History of the US Border Patrol", it was published inand given how critical border policy is it would have been valuable to provide additional material covering.
Good and rigorous history. Perhaps a little dry for a casual reader, Also mostly on focuses on the history up until, with the epilogue taking the rest up to the present.
But very good analysis of the book at in which the various “needs” of capitalism shaped the various ways in which the movement of Mexican workers needed to be managed and controlled because of the interests of capital.
Has a good chapter that looks at how the US policing of movement was developed in partnership with the Mexican state which is a dynamic that is left out of more casual treatments of the politics of immigration.
The chapters on the early history do a good job of showing how the violence and racism and history of conquest flowed directly into the daily practices of the Border Patrol though at times I wondered if the emphasis on this being “imposed on US immigration policy” authors words was a bit lopsided and underplayed the ways in which that racism and violence was just as central in the central mandates of the ruling class state.
Also I wished some more on the more recent history was there, But still a great book and a lot packed into a pretty tightish pages, Informative and succint history that provides crucial context to the current situation, Who knew the history of the border patrol was so interesting Very cool read, and written plainly.
Remarkable. Kelly Lytle Hernandezs work in Migra is a wellwritten and detailed history of the United States Border Patrol and immigrant relations.
This work flows logically from the establishment of the Border Patrol to the lates and earlys when the focus of the officer shifted to chasing criminals.
Lytle continues her discussion of changes with border patrol and immigration relations in her epilogue which neatly wraps up her thoughts on the work and analyzes what can be learned from this work and applied to issues in the modern world.
While Hernandezs work provides a clear and accessible history of US border patrol, it was more difficult to find one definitive thesis statement in her work.
I feel that Hernandezs thesis is presented in three parts that become more clearly defined as one reads the entirety of her work.
Hernandezs thesis in this work consists of the following parts: “that the US Border Patrols rise in the USMexico borderlands not only evolved according to economic demands and nativist anxieties but also operated according to the individual interests and community investments of the men who worked as Border Patrol officers”, “how Mexican immigrant workers emerged as the primary targets of the US Border Patrol and how, in the process, the US Border Patrol shaped the story of race in the United States”, and this work “unearths the crossborder dimensions of migration control, and explains the US Border Patrols growth in the USMexico borderlands as intrinsically embedded in the expansion of federal law enforcement”.
These elements make up the core tenants of Hernandezs argument and analysis throughout the work, This is the untold history of the United States Border Patrol from its beginnings inas a small peripheral outfit to its emergence as a large professional police force.
To tell this story, Kelly Lytle Hernández dug through a gold mine of lost and unseen records stored in garages, closets, an abandoned factory, and in U.
S. and Mexican archives. Focusing on the daily challenges of policing the borderlands 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 Mexicans in the U.
S. Mexico borderlands. The transformation of deportation Hernandez forces us to rethink how we conceptualize state sanctioned violence and the regionalization of race issues in the Borderlands.
In the movie Blue Bayou, which follows the eventual deportation of a Korean American adoptee in New Orleans, an ICE agent is a floating presence in the movie even friends with Antonio, the protagonist.
To me, the movie highlighted the ways in which the border looms large, and in distinct ways, on different racialized communities, and was a quality that it shared with Migra!, which opened my eyes to the shadows of the border patrol and its long history.
Kelly Lytle Hernandez a professor at my alma mater, UCLA uses archival research and case studies, to both points the microscope on multiple border patrol officers whose own histories entwine with the creation and maintenance of the force, and also frames the context through which the force was born.
As an example, she spends much time contextualizing the lands surrounding the border, particularly in Texas, writing how South Texas families saw undocumented workers with the same lens of paternalism as Southern slaves owners, and protected them as a way of life.


While I knew a lot of the antiAsian sentiment present at the creation of many of these border policies, I was shocked by the how deeply the history of Chinese and East Asian immigration influenced the beginnings of the U.
S. Border Patrol. In fact, early border patrols were specifically conducted around around Chinese, Japanese, Hindu and Filipino laborers and undocumented folxs before turning to Mexican laborers.
Tightening immigration controls meant that Asian migrants were forced to go to Mexico, and many Asians experienced double deportations from Mexico, where they first sent to the US, and then to China.


What I appreciate deeply about Dr, Hernandez's book is the different lenses through which she saw the development of the border patrol: she touched on the deeply gendered nature of the patrols, speaking of how women and children would develop strategies to unsettle the male officers and "embarrass" them by kick off large fights.
She wrote about the relationships developed between the Border Patrol and Mexican government and how they worked to turn the Mexican middle class onto the ensuing migrants and workers.


This was an incredibly wellwritten book on the history of the border patrol, with incredible relevance to much still happening today.
Even if you're very knowledgeable on migrant movements, there is a lot of contextual history that could provide even more depth to what you know.
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