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Border Patrol History

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history of the border patrol

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1920's

Founded

On May 28, 1924, Congress passed the Labor Appropriations Act of 1924, officially establishing the United States Border Patrol, with a force of 450 Patrol Inspectors. Their purpose was to enforce Section 8 of the Immigration Act of February 5, 1917, which prohibited smuggling, harboring, or assisting an alien not duly admitted by an Immigration Inspector or not lawfully entitled to enter or reside in the United States.

The Government initially provided the Patrol Inspectors with a badge and a revolver. Recruits provided their own horse and saddle, and the government provided the oats and hay for the horses. The Patrol Inspectors were paid $1,680 per year, and in December 1924 Congress approved additional funding for uniforms.

In 1925, the duties of the Border Patrol were expanded to patrol the seacoast areas and the agency finally reached its manpower projection of 450 Patrol Inspectors. The new recruits came from many different backgrounds, including the Texas Rangers, local deputy sheriffs, and appointees from the Civil Service Register of Railroad Mail Clerks. Another source was Mounted Inspectors from the Chinese Division of the Department of Labor’s Immigration Service.

In 1925, Congress established the Border Patrol’s authority to arrest someone with the passage of the Act of 1925.

In 1926, there were two Chiefs appointed to lead the Border Patrol. Ruel Davenport, headed up the Canadian Border District, and George J. Harrison, from El Paso, Texas headed the Mexican Border District.

March 18, 1926, General Order 61 established the positions of Supervisor of the Border Patrol (later renamed Chief, U.S. Border Patrol), Chief Patrol Inspector, and Senior Patrol Inspector.

HONOR FIRST, the motto of the U.S. Border Patrol is documented for the first time in the Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration to the Secretary of Labor for 1927. It had become the watchword of the El Paso District covering modern day El Paso, Tucson, and the Big Bend Sectors.

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1930's

Prohibition Era

The Border Patrol continued to operate under two Chiefs starting the 1930s.  Border Patrol continued to encounter criminals smuggling liquor in violation of the Prohibition laws. It was an extremely violent time on both northern and southern borders. There were 238 officially recorded gun fights involving El Paso District Patrol Inspectors from 1924 to 1933. Twenty-three Patrol Inspectors were killed in the line of duty.

In 1933 President Hoover, creates the Immigration and Naturalization Service by merging the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization. (INS)

In 1933, Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins directed the forming of Border Patrol Review Boards, also known as the “Benzene Boards”. The purpose was to reduce the size of the workforce and to purge the Border Patrol of those considered “quick with the gun” or “passed the age of maximum efficiency”. She also lowered the age of mandatory retirement from 65 to 62.

Recognizing the need for better trained officers, the El Paso District established the El Paso District Training School for Officers in the District. The school started in December 1934, and finished in January 1935. The school was located at Camp Chigas, in El Paso, Texas, and it was one of the first to incorporate training in modern equipment, and techniques such as radios, fingerprints, Morse code, and an intensive Spanish course. Because of the success of the El Paso Training School, it became mandatory for all new Patrol Inspectors nationwide to attend starting in 1936. 

In 1936, the Border Patrol began developing the use of radios in patrol vehicles and at base stations, gradually moving away from the use of Morse code.

In March of 1937, all Senior Patrol Inspectors and Patrol Inspectors were designated as Immigration Inspectors. Prior to this designation aliens who were apprehended by Patrol Inspectors were required to be presented to an Immigration Inspector to determine deportability.

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1940's

The War Years

On June 14th, 1940, the INS, transferred from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice. The first Border Patrol Training School, class number 1, began training at Camp Chigas, in El Paso, Texas.

September 1940, Congress designates the U.S. Border Patrol as a National Defense Agency under Title 50: War and National Defense as part of the Selective Service Act of 1940. This provides active-duty Patrol Inspectors and trainees a Class II deferment.

November 4, 1940, the issuance of the first new Patrol Inspector badge with the Department of Justice seal.

December 31, 1940, the U.S. Border Patrol obtains three autogiros from the US military and they become the first official Border Patrol aircraft. They were put in service in 1941, and the program ended with the crash of the last autogiro flying in November of 1945, and the death of Pilot Ned Henderson, the first Border Patrol Pilot killed in the line of duty.

In 1941, manpower in the Patrol almost doubled between 1940 and 1941. From 819 in 1940 to 1,531 in 1941.

During the war years, Patrol Inspectors performed many duties.  They were assigned duties guarding Axis non-combatants, Axis POWs, and Axis diplomats. They performed these duties at various internment facilities throughout the United States. Additionally, they traveled throughout Central and South America escorting enemy personnel back to the US for internment.

August 5th, 1942, the official Border Patrol logo was approved, and they began showing up on uniforms in 1944.

September 27, 1942, the Bracero Program was initiated, called the Mexican Farm Labor Program. It provided farm labor to replace workers who entered the military to support the war effort.

Beginning in 1942, 354 Patrol Inspectors were designated to perform coastal watch. They were looking for enemy submarines, spies, and for possible subversives entering the United States through coastal areas.

1945, the Border Patrol begins the interior repatriation program. Mexican Nationals (males), were transported by bus to the border, and then taken by train to the interior of Mexico.

1946 With the end of the war, the Border Patrol received additional authorities with the Act of 1946. This Act amended the Act of February 27, 1925, continuing the basic authorities and finally codifying the following authorities:

  1.  Extended the power, without warrant, to arrest any alien in the United States in violation of any law or regulation made in pursuance of law regulating the admission, exclusion, or expulsion of aliens, and likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained for his arrest.
  2. Reason to believe aliens were being brought into the United States in a conveyance was no longer necessary to board and search such conveyance; however, the search had to be within a reasonable distance of an external boundary.
  3. Added the power, without warrant, to make arrests for felonies committed and cognizable under any law of the United States regulating the admission, exclusion, of expulsion of aliens, if the person making the arrest has reason to believe that the person so arrested is guilty of such felony and there is likelihood of the person escaping before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.
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1950's

Performance Work Plans (PWPs) for Border Patrol Inspectors were initiated

June 1951 The U.S. Border Patrol begins the first Interior Repatriation Airlift to Mexico. Dubbed the “the Airlift” the first flight consisted of recidivists. The flights would continue until July 1952, removing a total of 51,504 illegal aliens. A train lift would begin in July 1952 removing 25,297 illegal aliens in four months.

February 4, 1952, the Livermore Border Patrol Sector is established. It included Fresno, Livermore, Sacramento, Salinas, and Stockton Border Patrol Stations in California.

March 1952, The Immigration Act of March 20, 1952, amended the Immigration Act of 1917 and the Immigration Act of 1925. The basic authorities in effect at the time of the new Act were retained with the following revisions and/or additions:

  • Transportation within the United States of known illegal entrant aliens was, for the first time, made an offense.
  • Arrests for harboring, smuggling, and transportations of illegal aliens were restricted to designated officers and employees of the INS, and all other officers whose duties were to enforce criminal laws.
  • Provisions were made for officers to have access to private lands, but not dwellings, within 25 miles of any external boundary, for the purpose of patrolling the border to prevent illegal entry.

June 1952 The Immigration Act of 1952 repealed and substantially reenacted most laws relating to immigration and nationality. This included granting immigration officers’ authority to act without a warrant. The one significant addition to authority of officers was the provision, which permitted boarding and searching of any conveyance for aliens to be performed anywhere in the United States, so long as the officer had reason to believe aliens were being brought into the United States in the vehicle being searched.

1953 The Border Patrol, in response to new authorities granted in the INA Act formalized a crewman control program in specific coastal Border Patrol Sectors. Additionally, Border Patrol stations in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk, were closed and their activities were taken over by the investigation Division of the INS.

September 3, 1953, The Border Patrol implemented a Boatlift from Brownsville, Texas to Vera Cruz and Tampico, Mexico. Running from September 3, 1953, to August 25, 1956m the operation resulted in the removal of 49,503 illegal aliens.

1954 INS Commissioner Joseph Swing directed standardization of uniforms, vehicles, and facilities. This brought a uniform color to Border Patrol vehicles, which before had been in whatever color they were received in by the Service, to the iconic “Seafoam Green” The Border Patrol would retain this color for the next three decades.

June 9, 1954 Operation Wetback commences in Southern California and Western Arizona. Seven hundred and fifty Patrol Inspectors were deployed. Within the first two weeks 144,834 illegal aliens were apprehended. Operation Wetback would expand along the rest of border in Arizona and Texas and into the interior. Operation Wetback is credited by INS as leading to the apprehension of 1,104,541 illegal aliens and having at least 700,00 self deport.

August 1956, The Border Patrol Training School name is changed to the Border Patrol Academy.

April 15, 1958, the Fraudulent Document Center is opened in El Paso, Texas.

January 25, 1959, Donald R. Coppock was appointed as the 10th Chief of the Border Patrol. He would be the longest serving chief, serving from 1959 to 1973.

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1960's

Development

During the 1960s the United States Border Patrol continued its development as a professional law enforcement organization. The new decade brought new challenges, new endings, and new beginnings.

The Border Patrol Training School and the Border Patrol Academy had its beginnings in El Paso, Texas. In June 1961, the decision was made to move the academy from El Paso to an old Naval Air Station near Port Isabel, Texas. On July 24th, the 78th Session of the Border Patrol Academy began training at the site. It remained at that location through the 113th session,

when the Academy was transferred to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia.

The Bracero Program, which began in the 1950s, with the enactment of Public Law 78 ended December 31, 1963 with the termination of PL Law 78. The termination of the program was linked to: (1) Economic and employment conditions in the United States which served to reduce the numbers of employers certified to as eligible to use Braceros; (2) Resistance on the part of growers to the increasingly restrictive provisions relating to the use of Braceros; and (3) Large scale mechanization of farming and harvesting.

Civil Rights issues and airplane hijackings were two issues that led to Border Patrol inspectors being deputized as U.S. Marshals and Sky Marshals during the sixties.  In Operation Freeway, over 300 Border Patrol inspectors were deputized to assist the Marshal Service in assisting James Meredith, a black man, register at the University of Mississippi. The situation led to a riot and 72 Border Patrolmen were injured securing Mr. Meredith’s safety and successful enrollment in the University.

Four hijackings between May and August, 1961 led President Kennedy to assign Border Patrol inspectors to fly on commercial jets. They were the forerunners of the Sky Marshals program.

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1970's

New Changes

The 70’s brought change to the Border Patrol. In 1970, the Patrol Inspector title was changed to Patrol Agent and in 1975 the first female agents were hired along with an increase in minority hiring. The 1980s and 1990s saw a tremendous increase of illegal migration to the United States. The Border Patrol responded with increases in manpower and the implementation of modern technology. Infrared night-vision scopes, seismic sensors, and a modern computer processing system helped the Patrol locate, apprehend and process those crossing into the United States illegally.

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1980's

Operational, technical and administrative initiatives

The Border Patrol, during the 1980s, had an authorized force of approximately 2,725 agents, and an on-duty force of 2,431 agents. They faced continuing pressure from illegal immigration, increased drug trafficking, and new pressures from illegal immigration from Haiti, Iran, and Cuba. There would be increased call for immigration reform.

In 1980, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro decided to release a large number of dissidents, criminals, and persons with mental illnesses from prisons, and institutions and send them to the United States. People from the United States were encouraged to come to Cuba and transport the Cubans back to the United States.

People from the United States were encouraged to come to Cuba and transport the Cubans back to the United States. Additionally, many came to the United States by their own means, which included boats, rafts, and a variety of transportation means.

To deal with the crisis, the Border Patrol sent 100 agents, two light aircraft, and 30 vehicles into Florida to help handle the influx of Cuban entrants. Eventually the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) detailed 622 INS employees (130 border patrol agents, 492 immigration officers and clerks) to assist the 100 employees stationed permanently in Miami at the various processing centers.

The INS, and national law enforcement agencies would deal with Cuban criminals for the remainder of the decade.

Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal entrants would gradually increase from 759,420 persons in 1980 to over 1.1 million persons in 1983. As rumor of a potential amnesty provision in the proposed Immigration reform act gained credence, illegal entries and apprehensions increased to a high of 1,692,544 in 1986, the year the new law was enacted. For two years following the implementation of the new law apprehensions were below one million persons. However, in 1990 the one million mark was reached again, and would remain over one million for the next 12 years.

With a change in administrations, the Border Patrol began to receive additional funding that helped reverse the serious issues encountered by the end of the 1970s. Between 1980 and 1986, the following operational, technical and administrative initiatives had an impact on the Border Patrol:

  • The horse patrol was reinstituted in 1981
  • Adopted military insignia parallel to military rankings 1981
  • Received the first OH-6 helicopters on loan from the Army 1981
  • Night vision scopes ANTAS-4 and 6s, were introduced for field operations 1981-1982
  • Night vision scopes ANTAS-4 and 6s, were introduced for field operations 1981-1982
  • The entire Border Patrol Academy curriculum was revamped 1983. The Patrol became the first Federal Law Enforcement agency to validate their courses.
  • Aircraft pilot training program was initiated in 1983
  • The use of ATV-90s and motorcycles were authorized in 1983
  • The first Low Level Light TV system (LLTV) was installed in El Paso 1983
  • Border Patrol Tactical Team (BORTAC) was established in 1983 for the following reasons: (a) conduct special operations including overseas operations; (b) to respond to civil disturbances
  • With extensive input by all Border Patrol Sectors, the Central Office Border Patrol (COBOR) staff formulated an enhancement package which was improved by OMB and Congress in 1984, providing the Patrol with a much-needed increase in funding of $35.6 million dollars and 850 new positions
    • Efforts to upgrade journeyman Patrol Agents were initiated in 1985 resulting in a limited number of upgrades from GS-9 to GS-11
    • The concept of using canines for Border Patrol operations was formulated in 1986. A professional canine program was launched by Chief Hugh Graham and his staff 1987-1988

    The remainder of the decade was dedicated to improving on the above initiatives and training INS employees, including the Border Patrol on the new Immigration Reform and Control Act.

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1990's

Hold The Line

In an effort to increase the level of control on border, El Paso sector established Operation ‘Hold the Line’ in 1993, and it proved to be an immediate success. Agents and technology were concentrated in specific areas, providing a ‘show of force’ to deter illegal border crossers.

The drastic reduction in apprehensions prompted the Border Patrol to undertake a full scale effort in San Diego, California, which accounted for more than half of illegal entries. Operation ‘Gatekeeper’ was implemented in 1994, and reduced illegal entries by more than 75 percent over the next few years. A defined strategic plan was introduced alongside Operation ‘Gatekeeper’ that laid out the course of action for the Border Patrol into the future. With illegal entries at a more manageable level, the Patrol was able to concentrate on other areas, such as the establishment of Anti-Smuggling Units, and search and rescue units such as BORSTAR. The Border Safety Initiative was created in 1998 with a commitment by the Border Patrol, and the guaranteed cooperation of the Mexican Government.

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2000's

Customs and Border Protection

Homeland Security became a primary concern of the nation after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On March 1st, 2003, the Border Patrol along with four other Federal entities merged into Customs and Border Protection, under the Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. Border Patrol continues its efforts to control our nation’s borders.

The 21st century promises to provide enormous leaps in technology that can be applied to border enforcement. The modernization of the Patrol advances at an astounding rate as new generations of agents develop innovative ways to integrate the contemporary technology into field operations.

New specialized technology is being created within the Border Patrol that holds increasing potential to assist agents in fulfilling the mission of the Patrol. Additional cooperation with neighboring countries increases border safety and law enforcement efforts.

The Border Patrol Museum, the only one in the United States, receives no federal funds and relies on donations to keep our doors open. If you are able, please consider donating to help sustain your museum.