Last Day in El Paso

Last night was our last in El Paso. We drove to the National Border Patrol Museum at noon.

The Border Patrol was originally started in 1904 as a part of the Department of Commerce and Labor to prevent illegal entry of Chinese immigrants under the Chinese Exclusion Act. It started in El Paso, but the 75 agents patrolled as far west as California. In 1917, they were given horses and authorized by Congress as mounted inspectors. Today's Border Patrol was founded in 1924 under the Department of Labor with two stations, El Paso and Detroit. They were involved with halting not only illegal immigration but also liquor smuggling during prohibition. FDR consolidated the bureaus of immigration and naturalization to create the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1933. It was moved to the Department of Justice in 1940 at the outbreak of WWII. After 9-11, it was transferred to Homeland Security and merged with Customs. It has been involved with the most famous incidents in modern US history: the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi in '62; the siege of Waco; the Mariel boatlift; Cuban missile crisis, and more. They have supported 24 foreign countries and have trained their agents. From 75 agents in 1904 to 19,887 agents in 2017, it is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the US, and has a budget of almost $4 billion.

I particularly enjoyed learning so much about the BP, more than I knew when I worked for INS in Vermont for 13 years. The museum mostly had displays from the southern border but did include the northern border efforts in several displays. They showed the aircraft used, the high-speed pursuit vehicles they used, their K9 group and their tactical unit, one of the most highly decorated and used tactical force in US law enforcement. Overall it was very rewarding to see.

After that, we went to the El Paso Holocaust Museum, started in 1994 by Nazi Holocaust survivor Henry Kellen (1915-2014), who settled in El Paso after entering the US.

Henry, his wife and nephew escaped Auschwitz while his mother and nephew's mother remained and were killed. The museum was very well done and was a very somber and sobering experience. It is the 3rd or 4th such museum I have attended, and each leaves me sad and in awe that almost every country in the world knew of the events but chose not to intervene for years, essentially giving Hitler the go-ahead to continue the genocide.

Before dinner, I made arrangements for our two next stops. Not easy, as many of the places are booked well in advance and had no openings. But we persevered and now have arrangements for the next 7 days. After dinner,we spent an enjoyable hour in the campground's hot tub and finished season 4 of "Grace and Frankie" on Netflix. One more season to go.