Politics

No Boundaries

For decades after its founding in 1924, the Border Patrol was a bureaucratic backwater: poorly funded and largely left to its own devices. Then came 9/11, and a flood of federal resources to “secure our borders” and add thousands of new agents. Yet the oversight necessary to manage a huge federal agency—let alone one that long had made its own rules—never really caught up, and scandals quickly followed: infiltration by cartels, corruption, assault, rape, murder. Within a few years, the Border Patrol had become one of the nation’s largest, and least accountable, law enforcement agencies. At the same time, the US-Mexico border became even more politicized. And then Donald Trump entered the fray.

For our September+October issue, we shined a light on the Border Patrol’s growth, its troubling record on civil liberties, its culture of impunity, and its role in shaping the current political moment—one that echoes the anti-immigrant fever that led to the agency’s creation a century ago, and that could once again put the Border Patrol at the center of Trump’s nativist plans.

The Border Patrol Is an Engine of Crisis—and Has Been Since the Beginning

Meet the forgotten cowboy-congressman who pushed it into existence a century ago.

Photo collage featuring Brandon Judd, president of the Border Patrol union, former president Donald J. Trump, the Border Patrol silver badge, and barbed wire.

Why the Border Patrol Went MAGA

Agents always skewed conservative. But then their influential union fully leaned into a Trump presidency.

A digital illustration depicts a tense scene with several armed law enforcement officers surrounding a group of detained individuals. The detainees, with their hands bound behind their backs, are being loaded into the back of a truck under the watchful eyes of the officers. The background is shaded in a muted yellow tone, with silhouettes of more vehicles and personnel visible in the distance. Barbed wire is seen in the foreground.

Inside Trump’s Plan to Deport Millions…

Experts explain how the former president would realize his vision of mass removal.

A digital illustration shows a dilapidated barn standing in a field overgrown with weeds. The foreground is dominated by tall, withered corn stalks, one of which has a damaged ear of corn exposed. A wheelbarrow and some gardening tools are visible among the vegetation, suggesting abandonment and neglect. The scene is shaded in muted yellow and green tones, giving it a somber and desolate atmosphere.

…And How It Would Ruin America

It would be brutal, costly, and likely illegal.

A pixelated image of border patrol officers.

“He’s an Agent. No One Will Believe Me Over Him.”

The case of an alleged rape at the Border Patrol Academy, and the culture of silence that helped keep it from public view.

A black-and-white photograph shows a young man with his hands pressed against the back of an SUV, being searched by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent. The young man is wearing a striped shirt and appears to be looking down. The agent, wearing a cap and gloves, is seen from behind as he performs the search. Another agent stands nearby, observing the situation. The scene is set in an open, rural area with tall grass and scattered bushes under a cloudy sky.

Border Creep

The Border Patrol covers far more territory than you think—and agents enjoy wide latitude to justify stopping vehicles.

Photo collage featuring two Border Patrol agents, multiple drones, surveillance cameras, and heat map images.

The Future of the Border Is Even More Dystopian Than You Thought

Automated surveillance and AI are here to stay—whether Trump builds his wall or not.

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