Border Patrol: Racist attitude against mexicans tourists. (San Antonio, Laredo: rent, hotel)

[sanluisito]

Hi, im a mexican living in Mexico City. I use to read more than discuss in this forum because is better for me reading than writting. Lets begin.

I dont know if you have noticed about the treatment for tourists in the south border of Texas. Let me tell the opinion we have about police that check the pass of tourists through Texas.

It's incredible thebad educattion that the police of homeland security have against the mexicans who cross the border legally for going shoppings to Laredo, McAllen, and San Antonio in most of cases. Most of the people who cross in holliday season are families that only want to pass nice days in Texas sharing the best moments of the years with part of the family who resides in Texas or other just rent a hotel.

It's crearly that the development of cities like San Antonio its based in all the tourist which come from Mexico to make some purchases.

In the case of my family we enter with the spanish passport so we expect that the treatment could be better but is not true. Mexicans allways want to have the attention of a white non-hispanic policeman cause the latinos always treat us shouting us, even to small kids when they play with caution.

It's curious but what i have heard that the mexican border patrol when you cross to Mexico, to the ones they abusse are to the hispanic who cross to Mexico and to the white americans are always welcomed.

[Alphalogica]

I have numerous friends who work for the Border Patrol (I'm prior military) and the vast majority of them are Hispanic. I couldn't picture any of them treating a Mexican national wrongly.

I look Hispanic myself and often is mistaken as one (I'm half-Chinese/white) and in my dealings with the Border Patrol have been excellent.

The Border Patrol, in my opinion, is an excellent organization and actually I don't think they do enough to enforce what has become a huge problem in our country.

[sanluisito]

If you speak and you understand spanish you could read some opinions about the border patrol of Laredo. In most cases the mexicans blame racist attitudes to whites, but surprisely the attitude of hispanics are worse compared to whites.

3 years ago i crossed the border in Laredo because we have a house in San Antonio, in that ocation the police keep me in a small room asking me some questions as why im crossing as spanish if i dont have a spaniard accent and some more foolishness. They only acted like that because the spaniard community is not very accepted within the rest of mexican popullation, and with some chicanos.

I dont like to show off but my family and our friends are of high class, no matter with that its obligatory to present school grades, bank statement, and even phone boucher.

In june i forgot my school grades,and Officer Perez showed me a "yellow card" as in football is an advertisement.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Alphalogica

I have numerous friends who work for the Border Patrol (I'm prior military) and the vast majority of them are Hispanic. I couldn't picture any of them treating a Mexican national wrongly.

I look Hispanic myself and often is mistaken as one (I'm half-Chinese/white) and in my dealings with the Border Patrol have been excellent.

The Border Patrol, in my opinion, is an excellent organization and actually I don't think they do enough to enforce what has become a huge problem in our country.

I agree. What the OP fails to mention is that we have millions of illegal Mexican immigrants in this country. Why wouldn't the border patrol be suspicious of a Mexican national? Why wouldn't they scrutinize them a bit more carefully? USCIS and ICE are both well-known for heavily scrutinizing tourists and potential immigrants from high-fraud countries like China, Russia, and...it goes without saying...Mexico.

[mitchdd]

First of all, he's not interacting with Border Patrol at all, at the border. Those interactions are with Customs Agents. They have an aggressive attitude with ALL people, not just Mexicans, so let's drop the nationality and/or race thing all together. They can be real jerks, but I presume they're trained to be that way. I believe they try to be intimidating in order to see if you get real nervous. Those that do get more nervous, are believed to have more to hide. This way they are more likely to catch the law-breakers. Border patrol does work the check points that are ~ 70 miles north of the border, such as those in Falfurrias and Hebronville.

[HtownLove]

wow, you could not pay me to vacation in Laredo and McAllen.

But I agree with Mitch, the customs agents are a-holes. And not just at the border towns. The ones at the airport in Puerto Rico are Nazis. When I was on a resident visa, they would always question me like I was new to the country. One even asked for the number of my school and a print out of my schedule. That might have been an untrained officer because clearly he is mistaking a student visa for a resident visa, but they are on a whole mean to non citizens

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by mitchdd

First of all, he's not interacting with Border Patrol at all, at the border. Those interactions are with Customs Agents. They have an aggressive attitude with ALL people, not just Mexicans, so let's drop the nationality and/or race thing all together. They can be real jerks, but I presume they're trained to be that way. I believe they try to be intimidating in order to see if you get real nervous. Those that do get more nervous, are believed to have more to hide. This way they are more likely to catch the law-breakers. Border patrol does work the check points that are ~ 70 miles north of the border, such as those in Falfurrias and Hebronville.

I have never had issues with US customs officers but most of my border crossings have been through airports like Atlanta, DFW, Boston, JFK, etc.

[doss1]

Actually, Sanluis is talking about how Hispanic agents treat Mexican nationals. This is something I have heard of having lived down in the border region for some time. The Hispanic law enforcement officers (whether they be Border Patrol, Park Rangers, Cops, etc) have a notorious reputation for treating their own kind as some lower class peons from another country.

[Metro Matt]

They're just doing their job & rightfully so. Illegal immigration into this country has become an epidemic. I don't blame them for being so strict at our borders. You should be thanking them, actually.

I get the same treatment when I board an aircraft & I'm American.

[malamute]

Originally Posted by sanluisito

In the case of my family we enter with the spanish passport so we expect that the treatment could be better but is not true. Mexicans allways want to have the attention of a white non-hispanic policeman cause the latinos always treat us shouting us, even to small kids when they play with caution.

It's curious but what i have heard that the mexican border patrol when you cross to Mexico, to the ones they abusse are to the hispanic who cross to Mexico and to the white americans are always welcomed.

Non-white illegals have told me the same thing. One guy said that if he was right on the border itself and had a Mexican army guy coming at him from one side and an Amercan border patrol agent coming at him from the other, he would run to the American border patrol agent - unless the border patrol agent was hispanic.

He told me - and I don't doubt a word he says, that he's been picked up a few times and that he was always treated well by the "anglo" border agents but - that he was not well treated by the "hispanic" agents. I can tell by the way he says this that he wasn't not treated well at all.

I've also seen with my own eyes some little kids being chased by border patrol agents, the agents were hispanic and definitely were roughing up these kids too much, the kids were young, and one little girl ran up some concrete stairs and the agent grabbed her ankle and she fell hard, hitting her head on the concrete stairs.

I'm very much against illegal immigration but I think the agents can size up the more harmless ones and do their job but still be polite about it.

Also I've seen that with the custom agents in Mexico. They'll pass an American through politely but are a lot more suspicioius with Mexicans and even Mexican Americans. Or they know that the Americans might be ignorant of the mordidas and the hints for them. They're more likely to examine the baggage of Mexicans and Mexican Americans also.

I'm not sure why this is - but I don't think your observations are wrong.