WEBVTT - Part One: The U.S. Border Patrol Is A Nightmare That Never Ends 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:05.680 M hm. You know, introducing a podcast is a little 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:11.440 bit like Megan Love. It's not it's not at all. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.200 I'm so sorry. I'm Robert Evans failing to introduce my 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.640 podcast yet again. It's behind the bastards, it's about terrible people. 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:22.959 I'm so sorry everyone. I was. I was trying to 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.360 open with my folksy wisdom, but I have none, and 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.760 I've got now I've botched the start of this episode. 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:33.800 Here to attempt to take away some of my shame 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.600 is Caitlin Duranti. Caitlin, how are you doing today? Oh? 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.519 You know, I'm just barely keeping it together at any moment. 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:48.680 But otherwise, think of any similarities between introducing a podcast 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:54.680 and making love? Well, let me think about that. Um oh, 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.120 I have one at home? One, I have one, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.240 The audio levels can go up until the audio levels 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.240 can go up and down. That's a good similarity, So 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.640 very much. Sure. Maybe an entire episode, not just introducing 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.080 an episode, but in an entire episode, I think you 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.920 could draw some parallels between because you've got you know, 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.040 there's like the intro is sort of like the four play, 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.640 and then you've got you know, usually a big climactic 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.880 finish to the episode. Well, there you go, everybody, if 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.240 you were we figured it out. You wanted to compare 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.160 a random episode of my podcast about bad people to 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:35.800 making love, Caitlyn Durranty has kind of made it easier maybe, Caitlin, 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.880 how are you doing today? All right? Um, you know, 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:45.520 I'm just you're in your closet recording and you're in 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.040 your closet. I'm looking at your luggage right now. Nice luggage. 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.680 I see you go with the hard shell. Thank you. Yes, 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.760 it is a really nice closet. If I remember from 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:57.640 the photos you sent me like it's it's a very 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.600 good sized closet. It truly is. Thank you so much. 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:02.920 You want to hear a little story about me, Caitlin 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.760 some an narcissist? Okay, So you know I travel a 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.359 lot to Caitlin, and I have refused my entire traveling 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.000 life to have like a hard shelled rolly suitcase, even 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.160 though they're much more comfortable to use at the airport 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.520 than a backpack, because as a young man with an 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:25.640 indestructible spine, I was like, only stupid old people use 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.160 the rollie backpacks. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.840 young adventurer forever and I just get to wear a backpack, 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.120 and now I just hurt myself every time I go 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.640 to the airport out of pride. And that's why men 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.680 shouldn't be allowed to hold political office. I couldn't agree 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.320 with you more. Um, yeah, you mean you you carry 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.119 around one of those like big backpacking, big old, big 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.400 old backpacking backpack. Horrible, horrible. Sometimes they carry a Duffel 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:58.400 bag even worse. That's absurd. Yeah, it's terrible idea, but 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:00.680 you know it does tie in with the theme of 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.040 today's episode, because what do you do with What do 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.440 you do with backpacks and Rowley suitcases, Caitlin, I mean 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.520 you bring them with you to travel, You bring them 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:15.160 with you to cross borders. Yeah, and today we're talking 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:22.440 about the motherfucking me grat the border patrol. Oh boy. Yeah, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.000 it's been a long journey to starting the episode this week, 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:31.080 but I think we got there nicely. Yeah. Sorry to 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.480 everyone who's been Um, you know, this has been a 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.520 little bit of a weird run of Behind the Bastards 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.760 the Uprising episodes. Uh, we're still going to be doing 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.880 the Dictators and grifters, you know, that are bread and butter. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.920 But um, I keep getting obsessed with different law enforcement agencies, 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.320 particularly the ones you know, shooting at me. Uh. And 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.280 so I started just kind of reading a bunch about 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.040 customs and border patrol this last week or so, and 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.400 I couldn't stop, And so I wrote a lot about 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.280 them and how we're all going to talk about border 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.160 patrol because Caitlin, did you know the border patrol kind 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:08.880 of problematic. Wait a minute, what do you mean? Yeah, 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:13.480 not nice dudes, as it turns out, Um, and have 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.320 kind of been dicks for like a hundred something years, 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:18.599 or like a hundred years. They've been dicks for a 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:22.559 long time, very close to a hundred years. Six years, 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.120 all right, yeah, which you know, they still have time 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.880 to change. You know, a lot of people have their best, 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:33.560 their best, you know, their second act after age ninety six. Yeah. 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.240 I would just say that applies to a large number 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:40.960 of people. A lot of tortoises, at least a lot 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.400 of tortoises go on to do very cool things after 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.760 age Yeah. Trees as well, there's a lot of old 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:52.320 trees that are border patrol could be like a sequoia. Yeah, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.400 but I don't know how likely. I think that is. 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.800 So we're gonna talk about We're gonna talk about Lamiger 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.839 today because they're terrible, and I don't think most people 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.120 know how terrible they are. And their terribility is important 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.839 because it is tighten with a lot of horrible things 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:12.240 about this country and the very concept of whiteness. So 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.320 how are you feeling about that, Caitlin? You know, I 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:20.120 don't feel good about it. I really don't. That's good 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.839 because my cunning plan has been to blame you personally 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:24.920 for all of the historical crimes of the U. S. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:32.640 Border Patrol. Well, I did invent them. You you you 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:37.640 launched the Immigration Act of nineteen twenty four. That's Caitlin Durantis. 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.880 That's resume. Yeah. I didn't want that to be my legacy, 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.960 but here we are. Yeah. A lot of people don't 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.160 know this, but you used to be all of Congress 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:50.479 in the early nineteen twenties. Yeah. Yeah, I mean pretty 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.360 impressive when you think of yeah, no, it really is. Yeah, 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.160 Congress Durante, Yeah you were instead of Caitlin, you were 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.359 Congress Tournto. Just true. If we're gonna talk about the 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.760 border patrol, we've got to talk about the border. And 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.000 given that the territory we currently know as like Texas, 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.440 New Mexico, Arizona, and even Mexico is all land that 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:10.840 was stolen from indigenous people. This is not like a 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:12.839 case where there's a lot of good guys to choose from. 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.360 If you're talking about like conflicts over the US Mexican border, 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.440 you're talking about like a bunch of different states that 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.960 kind of sucked fighting each other for land that wasn't 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:28.800 their Like that that that's the whole that's the whole deal, right, Um. So, 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:33.120 the US Mexican War of eighteen forty eight is the 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.120 conflict that gained our nation most of the modern Southwest. UM. 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.880 It was a naked war of imperialist aggression against another 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.560 nation that brutally subjugated indigenous people's um. One can argue 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:45.920 that Mexico was like a broadly better country than the 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.640 US at this point since it didn't allow slavery, But 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:55.600 both countries not not great to anyone any like indigenous 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:59.599 peoples or whatever, just just just bad, bad, bad governments. 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.119 So the end of the West Mexican War, the United 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.000 States wound up occupying Mexico City, and that nation was 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.960 forced to seed fifty of its northern territory and the 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.520 resulting treaty, and I think a lot of Americans who 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.560 grew up kind of outside of the Southwest. I don't 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.640 really have a clear idea of how much land UM 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:19.600 the United States got as a result of the US 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.320 Mexican War, but we took a shipload of land from Mexico. 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.560 It's fucking crazy how much of this country used to 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.880 be Mexico, like up into Oklahoma. Yeah. I don't have 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.720 a good gauge on that because I grew up in 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:37.800 Pennsylvania and that just wasn't something that they bothered to 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.880 tell us in history class. Yeah, we went like most 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:42.960 of the Southwest was kind of, at one point or 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:48.080 another um part of Mexico. UM. And so, yeah, we 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.480 took about fifty of Mexico's northern territory, and a new 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.520 US Mexican border was redrawn along the Rio Grand from 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.240 um the Gulf to El Paso and then along more 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.720 or less an arbitrary line further west up the Pacific. Now, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:02.680 this meant that a huge number of people who had 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.360 previously lived in Mexico and had been able to travel 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.800 freely around territory that was all part of one nation 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.840 now found themselves living in between two nations. Uh. This 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.520 included roughly a hundred and eighty thousand members of indigenous 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.160 tribes as well as about a hundred and fifty thousand Mexicans. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.760 So these three hundred thousandish non white folks owned most 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.240 of the land, and like the territories in the Southwest 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.720 that you know became Texas and some of the surrounding states, um, 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.360 and the decades after the US Mexican War are kind 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.839 of best viewed as a gradual process of white people 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.320 taking this land from non white people, some of it 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.440 through purchase, some of it through like violent threats and intimidation, uh, 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.600 some of it as a results of the reservation system 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.640 kicking indigenous people off of their ancestral land, and some 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:47.600 of it through just like good old you know, good old, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.319 good old fashioned genocide, Caitlin, just like that, just like 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.400 really getting your boots in it, you know. I mean, 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:58.040 those are the main principles that the US was founded on, right, 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:03.920 white people stealing end from non white people and genociding them. 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.040 You gosh darn right, Caitlin, your gosh darn right. And 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.000 that's why when I get up in the I'm just 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.320 thinking of like a Folger's coffee commercial, you know, one 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.199 of those old ones who was like a cowboy getting 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:18.160 up on the range sipping a Folger's coffee and then 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.200 just like stepping into a pile of bones and just 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.640 being like, ah, nothing like a nice morning walking barethrop 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.720 through a pile of bones, the thing that I do 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.559 every day as a cowboy. Yeah. Why wasn't that their 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:44.760 ad campaign for Folgers, Well, murder everybody coffee helps. Oh 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.600 I was drinking coffee and it went down the wrong hole, Caitlin. See, 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:53.959 coffee can't be stopped from attempting genocide. Even coffee wants 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:58.240 to murder. A coffee wants nothing but to murder. So, 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.520 as we discussed in our last episod Zoe of the 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:02.720 Behind the Police mini series that we just did, the 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.080 Texas Rangers was kind of the first border patrol type 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.559 force UH in you know, the southwest UH And they 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.760 began their history as a as a group like a 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.560 paramilitary organization to provide to protect white settlers in Texas. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.040 They were formed by a local mayor named John Jackson Tomlinson, 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.640 who was part of the old three hundred White families 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.640 who first settled in Texas with Stephen F. Austin. Now, 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.360 it wasn't a popular decision for these three hundred families 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.920 to settle in Texas, and the Comanches, Tangkawa's, Apaches, and 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.920 Karankawas who already resided in the area got kind of 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.400 angry and started murdering them. So Tomlinson ordered the formation 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:42.240 of a roving defensive patrol. This patrol became the Texas Rangers, 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.240 but Tumlinson never got to see it formed because he 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.040 was almost immediately killed by karen Kawa and huako In 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.360 indigenous people before he got off the ground. Um, well, 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.200 it sounds like karma to me. Yeah, it sounds like 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.160 it's fine. Like a shame they didn't get more people. 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.600 So the Rangers were kind of this country first border 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.600 patrol force, and the primary method of action for them 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.240 was just again really just straight up genocide. In the 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:08.480 early days, they were like a paramilitary army. They acted 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.960 as scouts for actual militias. They would swoop in and 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.720 force Indigenous people out of their homes and under reservations, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.480 but would also just burn their villages sometime and murder 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.480 their women and children. Because you know. Whatever do you 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.240 Sometimes you coming to the office and you want to 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.320 do things different. Um, I don't know. Yeah. They also 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.599 engaged in the murder and intimidation of Mexicans and border communities, 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:32.800 and by the early nineteen hundreds of the indigenous folks 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.880 had mostly been forced off of their land, and the 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.200 Rangers have become a police force focused mainly on Mexicano 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.760 Mexicano communities on the border. The primary strategy was what's 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.959 known to historians as revenge by proxy. And for an 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:48.839 example of how that looked, I'm gonna quote from the 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.960 American Crossroads book Migra quote. On June's twelfth, nineteen o one, 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.319 and Mexicano rancher named Gregorio Cortez stood at the gate 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.920 of his home in Kirness County, Texas. There he was 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.960 us to arrest for a crime that he did not commit. 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.200 The sheriff persisted, drew his gun and shot Gregorio's brother 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:06.959 in the mouth. When he charged at the sheriff to 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.200 protect Gregorio, Gregorios shot back and killed the sheriff, an 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.000 act that was sure to bring the Texas Rangers to 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.079 his doorstep. When they came, Gregorio and his family including 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.520 his wounded brother, were gone. All that remained was the 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.360 dead body of the sheriff. The news of Gregorio's deadly 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:24.720 defiance quickly spread across southern Texas. UM and Yeah, for 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.199 ten days, the Texas Rangers and posse's numbering up to 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.520 three men hunted for him. When they could not find him, 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.480 they sought revenge by proxy, arresting, brutalizing, and murdering an 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.320 unknown number of Mexican yos. So that's like how the 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.720 Texas Rangers kind of worked for a while. Is Hispanic 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.199 person commits a crime or a perceived crime, and if 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.680 they can't catch him to murder him publicly, they just 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.080 kill a bunch of other random Mexicans so that like 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.000 people don't get up at it. That's the that's the 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:56.199 first border patrol. Horrible, pretty bad, Caitlin, pretty bad. Don't 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.880 like it. I don't like it one bit. Okay, So 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.560 you are you are on them. You are on the 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.760 record now about not being in favor of murdering random 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.959 people um as part of a fear based a system 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.960 of law enforcement. Yes, and I am. I am happy 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.559 to be on the record. State it's a bold stance. 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:20.400 That's a bold stance to lose your Some advertisers, Caitlin especially, 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:25.560 are big advertiser Raytheon. When you really need a group 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.440 of people intimidated by violence, there's no other option but 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:35.200 Raytheon a robot ad brick. You're just doing. I know, 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.640 that's a that's a free that's a free one. Raytheon 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.000 just had to lay off a lot of employees, Sophie 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:41.960 and I for one to have a sense of loyalty. 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.720 So I'm trying to help Raytheon out with some free ads. 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.880 So look, if you've got a couple of billion extra 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.200 dollars that you need to spend on missiles that are 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.600 filled with knives in order to assassinate, you know, insurgent 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.000 leaders in Yemen, Um, look, don't go to Lockheed Martin, 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.200 go to Raytheon. Okay there, it's just better knife missiles. Right. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.040 That's that's all I'm gonna say. I have a sense 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:08.080 of loyalty. So for the first twenty years of the century, 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.440 the US Mexican border was policed by a mix of 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.959 Texas rangers and like local sheriffs. UH. Such enforcement was 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:17.079 always piecemeal, with hundreds of miles of borderland operating basically 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.320 autonomously as it had for generations. Like the idea that 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.800 we would police our border like didn't exist until pretty recently. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.080 For most of American history, it was just like, well, yeah, 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.200 you've got this big empty chunk of country and eventually 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:35.480 it becomes Mexico and it's nobody's nobody really gives a ship. Yeah. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:37.960 You see, all these communities had existed for forever, for 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.040 hundreds of years in a lot of cases, and you know, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.160 they had family who would be up in Mexico or 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.600 up in the United States, and it would have seemed like, um, 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.120 it would have seemed like madness to try to, uh, 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.360 to try to split these communities up based on an 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:56.720 arbitrary border line that nobody could even see. Um. But yeah, 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.960 in the nineteen twenties that started to change. In nine 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.000 twenty four, the Immigration Act was passed and the Immigration 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.280 Act banned all immigration to the United States from Asia, 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.520 and it massively reduced immigration in from the Southern from 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.320 Southern and Eastern Europe. The goal of the Act was 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.840 for the first time to enshrine in law the federal 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.320 government's preference for Nordic whites above non white people when 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:25.120 it came to immigration. So basically set up a quota system. Ye. Yeah, 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:26.920 have you heard about this? This is when we decided 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.240 that only one kind of white people were allowed in 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:37.160 the country. Um, this is the Italians aren't white enough law. 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.840 But people used to really care about that right in 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:43.520 the Immigration Act. A big part of it was stopping 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:47.560 Italians or as they would have called them, Italians, uh, 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.960 which it used to be I think more racist than 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.280 it is and is now just a funny, old timy 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.480 way of making fun of Italians, which I'm always I'm 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:00.200 always in favor of Caitlin. How do you feel? You know? 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.240 You do know that my last name is Durante and 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.840 the Diana I partly Italian? Yeah, so am I that's 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.800 why it's okay? Good? All right? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? Are 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:14.320 we are? Are we white? How's that? How's that work? Uh? 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:20.120 I have heard slightly varying things, but I think by 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:24.360 and large Italian people are considered white. Yes. I was 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.600 looking at a Nazi cartoon the other day because I 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.920 do things like that for my mental health, and it 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.240 was like the point it was making is that like 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:36.920 social justice advocates are always white, uh, and fascists are 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.120 actually really diverse and so like it was a bunch 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:45.240 of white people lecturing Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirahito. But but 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.920 because it was drawn by a fascist, they drew in 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.920 Mussolini as a black man because they don't think Italians 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.080 are white. So it's just like there were a lot 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.120 of layers of wrongness there to pass through. It was 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.560 one of those things that looked very confusing to people 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.240 who don't immediately recognize, Oh, these are the kind of 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.119 racists who don't even think Italians count as white. Um, 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.399 it's very funny. But in the nineteen twenties that was 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.640 all of Congress, sure, and they were like, we gotta 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.080 pass a lot to stop these Italians from coming in. Um. So, yeah, 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.960 the Immigration Act in nineteen bands all Asian immigration and 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.960 tries to kind of restrict to only the right kind 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.199 of white people. And the one real exception to this 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.560 the only kind of like non white folks who were 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.840 allowed into the country under the Immigration Act without any 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:36.560 kind of um restriction, where we're Mexicans. Um. And this 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.959 is because of hardcore labor or lobbying by the agricultural industry, right, 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.240 because like basically you had all these ranchers and farmers 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.919 in Texas particularly and in the Southwest, who are like, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.280 our entire industry doesn't work without these people, so you 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:54.360 have to let them in. UM. So the Act does 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.480 kind of make an exception for that. Um. It's very 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.520 heavily based on race science. And in fact, a big 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.520 factor in what got the Act passed was a bunch 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.720 of bogus studies conducted by the Eugenics Research Office at 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.480 cold Spring Harbor that kind of provided intellectual justification for 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:12.640 the law by arguing that the wrong kind of immigrants 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:14.879 would leave the surges and violent crime and declines in 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:20.440 i Q. Um, No, this is bad. This is bad. 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.600 And the nineteen four Immigration Act is what establishes the 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.800 US Border Patrol for the very first time. So this, 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.800 this fundamentally racist law written by people who justified it 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:35.480 explicitly with race like like bad, race science is where 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.320 the border patrol is initially established. So literally born in 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.399 an orgy of racism. Uh. And in fact, the the 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.280 nineteen Immigration Act that established the Border Patrol was so 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.520 nakedly racist that Adolf Hitler took inspiration from it. Uh 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:55.000 in nineteen Yeah, it's bad, It's really bad, Caitlin. This 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:59.399 is where border patrol comes from. Oh yeah, it's not great. 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.520 Um in n Hitler wrote this of the law, there 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.199 is currently one state in which one can observe at 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.080 least a week beginnings of a better conception. This is, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.280 of course, not Germany, but the American Union. The American 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:16.600 Union Union categorically refuses the immigration if physically unhealthy elements 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:21.359 and simply excludes the immigration of certain races. So Hitler 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.240 in the twenties took a look at what we were 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:28.160 doing in the US and was like, I like the 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:35.120 looks of that. Let me be copy paste and do that. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.840 That's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. That's exactly 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.400 And he wrote extensively about how inspired he was by 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.119 US immigration law, which was like the most racist in 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.159 the world at the time. Holy ship, you want to 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:49.600 know something else, cool, Caitlin, this is a neat story. 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.120 You're gonna love this. Please see the you know, El Paso, 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.960 great town, solid Tacos. A lot of immigration in Del 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.560 Paso right always has been because it's it's the pass right, 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.240 you know, that's just where it's located. Back in like 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.159 the twenties and thirties, when immigrants would come in. Racist 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.720 white people were so worried about how dirty they thought 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.280 Mexicans were that they would mandate de lousing bats for 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.840 everybody who entered the country, and they would just douse 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.560 them in uh pesticide. And the pesticide that they chose 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.600 was zyklon. B Wait what is that? That's what they 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.640 killed all the Jews with. And the yeah, yeah, that's 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:30.760 another thing. The Nazis were like, oh, this seems like 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.000 something we could modify a little bit to make better 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:38.800 for us. That's good stuff. It's not. It was super 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:43.480 flammable and sometimes people burnt horribly to death. Good stuff 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:48.440 on the border kind of always a nightmare, kind of 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:50.679 If you study the history of the border, maybe the 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.000 only reasonable conclusion is that borders are fundamentally toxic, but 0:20:56.080 --> 0:21:00.920 and completely made up. They're just yeah, total of like 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:08.199 horrible usually racist ideology. They're just lines, racist lines we 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.120 draw on a map that murder tons of people. It's awesome, 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.760 it's really good. So yeah, the border patrol comes out 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:17.400 of is formed from a law that the Nazis look 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:20.720 at and go, that's a good law, says we the Nazis. 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:27.600 Um sweet stuff, Caitlin. So because the the Immigration Act 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.240 has passed alongside a surge of racist nativist fear about 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.880 those dastardly non white immigrants. It mandated that the new 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:35.720 Border Patrol be established quickly. The first version of the 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:40.120 force was basically built overnight from July one, so rapidly 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:42.120 that there was no time for the Patrol to actually 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.360 create any kind of qualification exam for its new recruits. 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:47.560 The first wave of men to where the services green 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.920 uniform were instead required to pass the railway mail clerk 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:56.520 civil service exam, which I'm sure is basically the same thing. Yeah. 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:58.760 So as a result, and this is something we'll talk 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.320 about in part two, this this winds up being a 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.080 long trend in the Border Patrol is every decision they 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.920 make they have to like immediately adopt it, and they 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.240 never have time to train anybody to do the job 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.040 that they're going to do, and everyone's just fine with this, 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:15.400 and it persists for ninety six years. So the whole thing, 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.480 every like decisions are made all willy nilly people are 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:24.320 brought in with no training, no training implemented, with no 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:29.280 thought given to it. They're just like, here's what we decided, 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.840 and we're not going to take a second, to examine 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.720 this at all, We're just going to do it. Yeah, 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:39.480 I mean, the current DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, has no 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:42.760 law enforcement experience, was never in the military, and I 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.399 think went to college on like a tennis scholarship. Um. 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.920 So it's great and it's cool how things are always 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:57.040 exactly the same forever because yeah, again, if people ever 0:22:57.160 --> 0:22:59.920 learn a single lesson from history, the world will explode. 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:05.560 So we have to not do that, um anyway. But 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.000 there's also a conundrum there too, right, because so much 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:11.520 of history that gets taught, at least in schools is 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:16.880 so horribly whitewashed and revisionists that like, how can anyone 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:23.840