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. 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.

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

Kelly Lytle Hernández is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Associate Director of the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“A meticulously researched. interesting, and enjoyable book.”—The Historian

“An interesting and valuable book.”—Historian

“Lays out an ambitious agenda and provides well-narrated documentary support for its arguments. . . . A valuable work.”—Jrnl of Social & Cultural Geography

“A thorough and substantive study of the United States Border Patrol, or la migra in colloquial Spanish.”—Hispanic Amer Historical Review

“[An] insightful history on the Border Patrol.”—Nacla/Report On the Americas

“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.”—Western Historical Qtly

“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.”—American Book Review

“Migra! stands as a major contribution, successfully revising our understanding of border policing.”—Journal of American History

“Hernandez offers well-documented accounts and analysis that bring considerable value to obtaining a resolution to the problem.”—New York Jrnl of Books

“A Useful resource for any scholar seeking to understand the complex dynamics of race, migration, and law in the twentieth century.”—Law & History Review

“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! by UCLA assistant professor of history Kelly Lytle Hernandez. [It] is surprisingly complex and nuanced.”—Tucson Weekly

“Migra! is the first and only substantive history of the U.S. Border Patrol. Hernandez breaks new ground in this deeply researched account of its formation and development.”—George Sanchez, author of Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945

Honorable Mention for the John Hope Franklin Prize, American Studies Association
Honorable Mention for the Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize, American Studies Association
William P. Clements Prize, William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies