Display of the ‘Criminal Other’: A Field Trip to the National Border Patrol Museum

• In Event: The Far Reaching Realm of Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

The National Border Patrol Museum located in El Paso, Texas, advertises itself prominently on a glossy pamphlet as “One of El Paso’s Best Kept Secrets!”This essay explores some of the museum’s more prominent exhibits, and through these examinations probes both the museum’s public role as “museum” and, secondly, its role as an institution within an increasingly fierce public discourse that centers around immigration and most adamantly, anti-immigration.

Authors

• Dulcinea Lara, New Mexico State University

• Carlos Posadas, New Mexico State University