Review: Migra!: A History of the U.S. Border Patrol

Migra!: A History of the U.S. Border Patrol by Kelly Lytle Hernandez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was interested in this book after hearing that the author was awarded a MacArthur grant for her book which “challeng[es] long-held beliefs about the origins, ideology, and evolution of incarceration and immigrant detention practices in the United States.” I found the book too theory heavy for my tastes and stopped reading. But I did like the way she started the book:

[Spoken] It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!
No man, it’s a wetback.
[sung] He cam from the sky, but he is not a plane.
He came in his spaceship from Krypton,
And by the looks of him, he’s not American.
He’s someone like me — undocumented.
So the migrant should not work
Because even though it hurts, Superman is an illegal.
He’s a journalist, and I am too;
He didn’t serve in the army (what a bum!)
He is white, has blue eyes and is well-formed;
I’m dark-skinned, chubby and short.
But in my homeland I already marched
With the coyote I paid when I crossed.

He didn’t serve in the military.
He doesn’t pay taxes and he wants to pass judgement.
He doesn’t have diamonds or a license to fly.
I’ll bet he doesn’t even have a social security card.

We need to kick Superman out of here.
And if it’s possible, send him back to Krypton.
Where is the emigration authority?
What’s the news, Mr. Racism, in the nation?
For all I know they don’t fine him for flying.
But on the contrary, they declare he’s Superman.

Jorge Lerma “Superman is an illegal alien”

Toward the end of the Great Depression, DC Comics launched its fantastic tale of an orphaned infant alien who grew up to become an American hero named Superman. The Superman saga begins with the young hero’s dramatic arrival on earth. Just moments before the destruction of his home planet, Kyypton, Superman’s parents rocket their infant son toward salvation in Kansas. Adopted by a childless but moral and God-fearing couple, Superman spends his early years as nothing more than an average Anglo-American boy coming of age in rural America. But beneath his external appearance, he is different. Unlike his neighbors, Superman can fly, melt steel, and see through walls. And, unlike his neighbors, Superman is an illegal alien.

Thirty-one years before Superman landed in American folklore, the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1907. This law required all immigrants entering the United States to pass through and official port of entry, submit themselves to inspection, and receive official authorization to legally enter the United States. Dropping from the sky and failing to register with the U. S. Immigration authorities, Superman entered the United States without authorization. According to U. S. Immigration law, the incorruptible leader of the Justice League of America was an illegal immigrant. Yet the tale of Superman evolved free of any hint or consideration of his illegal status. Surely, Superman was just a fantasy and, as such, the character and narrative were not subject to the basic realities of U. S. Immigration restrictions. But in the same years that Superman’s popularity soared, the United States became a nation deeply divided over the issue of illegal immigration. From congress to school boards, Americans decried an “immigrant invasion” and a loss of control over the country’s borders. These debates swirled around the issue of unsanctioned Mexican immigration at the U. S. - Mexico border. By the mid 1970s, vigilantes were patrolling the border, and congress was hosting explosive debates about how to resolve the so-called wetback program. As the issue of unauthorized Mexican immigration rippled across the political American landscape, Chicano activist and songwriter Jorge Lerma asked his listeners to consider the irony of Superman’s enormous popularity. “It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No man, it’s a wetback!” Shouted Lerma. But few people took note that the iconic Man of Steel was an illegal immigrant.

Lerma’s provocative interrogation of Superman’s forgotten illegal immigrant was a critique of the U. S. Border Patrol’s nearly exclusive focus on policing Mexican immigrant workers despite many other possible subjects and methods of immigration law enforcement (pgs. 1-2).

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