For decades When it was founded in 1924, the Border Patrol was a bureaucratic backwater. It was underfunded and largely self-funded. Then came 9/11, and federal resources poured in to “protect the border” and add thousands of new agents. But the oversight needed to manage a massive federal agency, especially one that had long made its own rules, never caught on, and scandals quickly followed: cartel infiltration, corruption, assaults, rapes, and murders. In a matter of years, the Border Patrol became one of the largest and most unaccountable law enforcement agencies in the country. At the same time, the U.S.-Mexico border became more politicized. And then came Donald Trump.
The September-October issue focuses on the growth of the Border Patrol, its troubling record on civil liberties, its culture of impunity, and its role in shaping the current political climate, which echoes the anti-immigrant fervor that swept the Border Patrol a century ago and could put the agency at the center of Trump’s nativist agenda again.
The Border Patrol is an engine of crisis. And it has been since the beginning.
Meet the forgotten cowboy congressman who gave birth to it a century ago.
Why the Border Patrol Went MAGA
The agents have always been conservative, but their influential union has become completely dependent on the Trump presidency.
Inside Trump’s Plan to Deport Millions…
Experts explain how the former president would carry out his vision of mass genocide.
…and how it will destroy America
This is brutal, expensive, and most likely illegal.
“He’s an agent. No one will believe him.”
The rapes that occurred at the Border Patrol Academy and the culture of silence that kept these incidents from being made public.
Border violation
The Border Patrol covers a much larger area than you might think, and officers have wide discretion when it comes to stopping vehicles.
