1st site of Border Patrol training was in El Paso

Dear Trish: The first Border Patrol Academy was held at Camp Chigas in El Paso. It was also the site of the El Paso Sector, or as it was called originally, the Bi-District Headquarters of the El Paso District. At the Border Patrol Museum, we have been scanning and digitizing literally thousands of newspaper articles related to the Border Patrol going back to the 1920s. In one of those articles, I think I read that Camp Chigas was named after an Army private who was killed during Pershing's Punitive Expedition into Mexico, chasing Pancho Villa. I would appreciate any information on this that you might have -- David Ham, President, Board of Governors, National Border Patrol Museum

The War Department named guard camps after two soldiers killed in the June 15, 1919, fighting with Villa's rebels. Pvt. Sam Tusco, Headquarters Company, 82nd Field Artillery, was killed by a sniper while standing near the Santa Fe bridge just before crossing into Mexico. Sgt. Pete Chigas, Troop L, 7th Cavalry, was shot in the chest during the fighting in Mexico and later died from his wound.

The Border Patrol Academy started its first training class Dec. 3, 1934, at Camp Chigas, with 32 men reporting for training. The classroom instruction was four hours a day and there was no physical training program. The first class graduated March 17, 1935.

Here is some additional information about the history of the U.S. Border Patrol from a 1999 article by Times reporter Ken Flynn:

1904-24 --U.S. commissioner general of immigration assigns a mounted guard of about 75 men to patrol the southern border, with headquarters at El Paso. Commissioner is concerned with Chinese immigrants prohibited from entering the United States under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Europeans unable to pass inspection at Ellis Island.

1917 -- Immigration Act of 1917 imposes head tax of $8 on Canadians and Mexicans. The act subjects them, like others, to a reading test. The act contributes to widespread illegal border crossings and increases in smuggling.

1920 -- Prohibition begins, marking the start of liquor smuggling. El Paso and Juarez both profit from Prohibition. Juarez establishes bars for thirsty Americans, and El Pasoans begin to advertise a visit to the border as a two-nation vacation.

1920s -- Rumrunners of the 1920s prove to be ruthless; by the time Prohibition ends in 1929, 30 officers lose their lives.

1921 and 1924 -- The Immigration Quota Acts of 1921 and 1924 establish the nation's first limits on the number of people legally admitted each year.

May 28, 1924 -- Congress passes an act that creates the U.S. Border Patrol, 450 "patrol inspectors" with headquarters in El Paso and a sector in Marfa, Texas, followed by sectors in Gainesville, Fla., in 1925; Rouses Point, N.Y., in 1926; and Grand Forks, N.D., in 1939. Agents are given badges but no uniforms.

December 1924 -- An official uniform is adopted. Spanish-speaking border residents nickname the Border Patrol agents los planchados, the ironed ones, for their spiffy uniforms and hard, drill-sergeant hats.

1934 -- Patrol officers attend first "training school" at Camp Chigas, El Paso.

1935 -- Border Patrol installs and uses radios in vehicles and stations.

1945 -- Border Patrol begins using fixed-wing aircraft.

1956 -- Agents begin using drug-sniffing dogs. Canine units prove helpful in many aspects of Border Patrol work.

1956 -- Training schools become known as "Border Patrol Academies." Agents attend a 19-week course with eight-hour training days, which include a two-hour physical training program.

1961 -- Border Patrol agents are deputized as U.S. marshals during nation's first airline hijacking in El Paso.

1962 -- Border Patrol agents are deputized as U.S. marshals during civil-rights disorders in Mississippi and Montgomery, Ala., and in 1973 during the Native American protests at Wounded Knee, S.D.

1975 -- Border Patrol Academy "Session 107" graduates first group of female agents.

1977 -- All training schools are now conducted at Border Patrol Academy in Glynco, Ga.

1980 -- Border Patrol begins using helicopters. The agency now employs the most modern law enforcement techniques such as closed-circuit television and electronic sensors.

1996 -- Charleston, S.C., becomes site of a satellite Border Patrol Academy to accommodate more agent trainees.

1999 -- The Border Patrol is the largest uniformed federal law-enforcement agency in the nation, with 8,000 highly trained and equipped agents operating in 22 states. Agents ease the flow of legal immigration and goods while preventing illegal traffic of people and contraband. They patrol the border by foot, air, vehicle, boat, bicycle, snowmobile, canoe and horseback.

If you want to know about El Paso's history, send El Paso Times librarian Trish Long an email at [email protected] or comment at her blog by visiting elpasotimes.com/blogs.

Comments

[Mart Martinez, Sr.]

Hi Trish;
I would like to know if a photograph was taken by the El Paso Times in 1909 When then president William Taft visited El Paso To converse with president of Mexico Porfirio Diaz. My father was in command of the Mounted Escourt for President Diaz and maybe a short story on this meeting.