The Rise and Fall of Border Patrol

The modern era of border enforcement began, as far as we can pinpoint a single date, with Sylvester Reyes. The community around McAllen had got tired of Border Patrol snooping around businesses and even schools in a Rio Grande Valley. And instead, Reyes deployed his agents forward in a sort of human fence along the Rio Grande. He would later become the chief of the El Paso sector and a democratic congressman.