When the Border Patrol disguised themselves as Santa

June 22, 2015 12:47 PM

I'm looking for a 1980s-1990s photo of Border Patrol agents, dressed as Santa and handing out presents to irregular immigrants.

The question comes more-or-less from this Jacobin article. I've seen the claim there before—that sometime in the 1980s or early 1990s (pre-Hold the Line), Border Patrol agents dressed as Santa on or near Christmas and gave out gifts to presumed irregular border crossers. I'm looking for any photo that generally matches that description. My Google abilities have let me down.

I did think about trying to backtrack from other citations, but unfortunately I'm traveling for several weeks and away from my library. Not doing a gotcha on Jacobin (much as they often annoy me), just looking for any actual source of this.

Thanks much!

posted by migrantology to Law & Government (2 answers total)

Here's one instance with some history going back to the late 1990s, but probably not what you had in mind:

Riding in a horse drawn carriage and dressed in a green suit, Santa Claus made a surprise visit to the children of Sonoita [Arizona] on Sunday morning.

Every year the agents and employees of the Sonoita Border Patrol Station band together and raise funds to ensure that families in need in eastern Santa Cruz County [in Arizona] have a bountiful Christmas. In conjunction with civic volunteers, various families are identified to participate in the event. Agents and staff held fundraisers, donated gifts and generously gave and provided all the fixings for a holiday dinner for six families with 18 children.

An agent from the Sonoita Station, who has been coordinating the event since 1998, arrived dressed in his Border Patrol green Santa Claus suit in a horse drawn carriage. Children and their families enjoyed holiday treats and carriage rides with Santa before being showered with gifts.

Here is a round-up of Customs and Border Protection efforts in 2005, titled U.S. Border Patrol Donates Gifts to Local Children, with some references to agents dressing up as Santa.

And here's a photo gallery from a Border Patrol Christmas Even in Webb County, Tx, again with Santa wearing green instead of red.

That's all about US populations. Here's a reference to police in San Diego in 1986, where "one of their 'finest' dressed in a Santa Claus outfit, to distribute presents to the brown-faced kids, to embrace Mexico's needy," and so forth, but no photos. It's a Google books preview of Rethinking Borders, edited by John C. Welchman.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:44 PM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, filthy light thief, for the research!

Since the whole dressing-up-as-Santa thing is a common police practice, I'm beginning to wonder if the Jacobin et al. story is a game of telephone: agents dressed as Santa going into Latino communities in the US, and giving out presents indiscriminately. Since the communities woukd have Hugh proportions of irregular-status residents, they almost certainly would have given to somebody without authorization. And maybe that becomes the "CBP dresses as Santa, gives to 'illegals'" story.

Hm.
posted by migrantology at 9:54 AM on June 23, 2015