Most news coverage of unauthorized border crossing
operates on the assumption that the act is obviously a crime and always has
been. Actually, it didn’t become a crime until 1929. UCLA history professor
Kelly Lytle Hernandez explains how the law came about and the role of racism in
its creation. Technically the maximum punishment for a first-time crossing
“without inspection” is six months in jail; a New York Times feature
reminds us that for thousands of people the attempt to cross the border has
resulted in a death sentence.—TPOI editor
How crossing the US-Mexico border became a crime
By Kelly Lytle Hernandez, The Conversation
April 30, 2017
It was not always a crime to enter the United States without
authorization.
In fact, for most of American history, immigrants could
enter the United States without official permission and not fear criminal
prosecution by the federal government.
That changed in 1929. On its surface, Congress’ new
prohibitions on informal border crossings simply modernized the U.S.
immigration system by compelling all immigrants to apply for entry. However, in
my new book “City of Inmates,” I detail how Congress outlawed border crossings
with the specific intent of criminalizing, prosecuting and imprisoning Mexican
immigrants.[…]
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A Path to America, Marked by More and More Bodies
By Manny Fernandez, New York Times
May 4, 2017
SAN MARCOS, TEX. — Case 0435 died more than a mile from the
nearest road, with an unscuffed MacGregor baseball in his backpack. Case 0469
was found with a bracelet, a simple green ribbon tied in a knot. Case 0519
carried Psalms and Revelation, torn from a Spanish Bible. Case 0377 kept a
single grain of rice inside a hollow cross. One side of the grain read Sara,
and the other read Rigo.
The belongings are part of a border-crossers’ morgue at a
Texas State University lab here — an inventoried collection of more than 2,000
objects and 212 bodies, the vast majority unidentified.
All 212 were undocumented immigrants who died in Texas
trying to evade Border Patrol checkpoints by walking across the rugged terrain.
Most died from dehydration, heatstroke or hypothermia. Even as the number of
people caught trying to illegally enter the United States from Mexico has
dropped in recent months, the bodies remain a constant, grim backdrop to the
national debate over immigration.[...]
Read the full article:
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| Photo: George Etheredge/New York Times |
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