What is the long-term impact on the community of the constant presence of the Border Patrol?
Maria Jiménez: Often when I address Mexican-origin audiences in the United States, I talk about how we are the only ethnic group in the whole country who can claim to have a national police force we can call our very own. When I’ve addressed Border Patrol agents, because I have addressed them at a couple of training sessions, I tell them about the complexity of our relationship, given that policy has thrown us together. It wasn’t their choice to police us. It is policy that has placed them in the position of policing us. We are the police constituency. There’s a whole folklore about it. There’s songs, there’s jokes, there’s stories. And the jokes particularly are revealing. Sometimes the agent is the butt of the joke, sometimes it’s the immigrant, sometimes it’s both of them together. I tell them about La Jornada, one of the most widely-read newspapers in Mexico. Every Sunday has a cartoon column called “When the Border Patrol Catches Up with Me”. The Border Patrol is such an ingrained
