The U.S. Border Patrol, Laredo, Texas, 1926
In 1926, San Antonio photographer Eugene O. Goldbeck took this photograph of U.S. Border Patrol officers in Laredo. Since 1917, Mexicans, like other immigrants, had been subject to a head tax and literacy test. The U.S. government had not enforced these provisions, however, because of pressure from southwestern employers eager for cheap Mexican labor. Following passage of the National Origins Act in 1924, the United States established the Border Patrol. Its increasing efforts to police the border slowed the casual movement of Mexican workers in and out of the United States. Why do you think the Border Patrol posed in this way for Goldbeck’s picture? Notice that some of the officers depicted here were dressed as civilians. What might this signify? Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.