Border Dogs: Trading Cards and the War on Drugs

• In Event: Sensing Infrastructure: Perception, Politics, and Media of the US-Mexico Border

Abstract

Tucker, a happy but intimidating-looking German shepherd mix, looks at the camera with his mouth slightly open and his tongue hanging out. His picture is bordered by blue stars, with a logo for the Treasury and U.S. Customs in the right-hand corner. Tucker, like the other dogs in the Canine Customs’ trading card series, is a working dog trained to detect and alert Customs officers to the presence of drugs at ports of entry. Tucker, per the card, is stationed at Eagle Pass, and his most notable seizure was “63,000 lbs of marijuana concealed in a propane tank truck”. Tucker’s card is just one of approximately 24 collectible cards distributed by Treasure and U.S. Customs Service and printed by Nabisco from 1991 to 1992. Each card features a picture of the “all-star” canine and prominent stats about them, including their breed, age, weight, how long they’ve been part of Customs, and their most notable seizure. At the bottom of the card on the back is a number about where to report suspicious activities, imploring the reader to help stop drug smuggling. As a piece of propaganda, it’s clear that the trading cards were created for children: the use of dogs on the front and the trading card format built off existing trading card cultures. Despite their short run, the Canine Custom’s trading cards are part of a historical shift in the circulation of border media beyond the space itself. Arguably, this shift is both geographical and generational.

In this paper, I consider how the Canine Custom’s trading card series is part of the optics of the border at its intersection with the war on drugs. Using Camilla Foja’s idea of “borderveillance” I explore how the circulation of the cards makes the border visible at a time when border politics were moving towards concretizations and policing escalations. While the cards present as seemingly innocent objects about working dogs, they are media that show the border as expanding inward regardless of the physicality of the space. Further, the cards are a product of the War on Drugs (WoD) as it encompasses the border and programs like D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), which began in the early 1980s. The circulation of the Canine Customs’ trading cards makes clear the multiplicity of the United States-Mexico border as a site of infrastructure, policing, and propaganda. The coupling of the WoD with heightening border controls in the early 1990s is mediated through the images of the canine unit to reach young audiences while positioning the border as a site of danger which they can help to police. By reaching new and younger audiences, the cards help to position the border as a zone of criminality and surveillance. I explore the cards' historical and cultural significance in the turn toward NAFTA and Operation Gatekeeper.

Author

• Alyssa Quintanilla, College of William and Mary