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23 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 167 (2009)
La Migra in the Mirror: Immigration Enforcement and Racial Profiling on the Texas Border

handle is hein.journals/ndlep23 and id is 169 raw text is: LA MIGRA IN THE MIRROR: IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AND RACIAL PROFILING ON THE TEXAS BORDER CtSAR CUAUHTP-MOC GARcA HERNANDEZ* The first step in any Latino urban agenda must be to remove La Migra from the front yard. -Mike Davis' Where would the United States be without its ilegales? -Ilan Stavans2 On an ordinary Saturday night in late July 2007 the traffic on a bridge linking the Mexican state of Tamaulipas with the Texas border cities of Hidalgo and McAllen was in its typical weekend crawl. My parents and I paid the toll and immediately found ourselves in down- town Reynosa, a gritty industrial city whose eighteenth century origins as a key outpost of Mexico's expansive northern frontier suggest it has seen better days.3 Fifteen minutes later we reached our destination: a glittery new sal6n tucked behind an H-E-B grocery store, a Texas landmark, screaming in bright red and white neon lights of the strong bond that unites the communities located in the shadow of the Rio Grande River. We were in Reynosa to join longtime family friends in celebrating the marriage of their youngest son, a twenty-year-old Marine recently back from Iraq, to his high school sweetheart. Like many families along the border, including mine, Enrique and Katarina were born, raised, and live in Texas, but have many relatives in Reynosa and surrounding towns.4 * J.D., Boston College Law School; A.B., Brown University. C~sar Cuauht~moc Garcia Hernindez currently practices immigration law in his hometown, McAllen, Texas, with the Law Offices of Ratil Garcia & Associates. I am deeply indebted to Margaret B. Kwoka without whose patience and thoughtful comments this article would not have been possible. Le dedico 6ste artculo a mis carnales-Lupita, Rail, Sol-Angel, y Carlos. Ustedes encontraron el camino; yo solamente los seguL. Gracias. 1. MIKE DAVIS, MAGICAL URBANISM: LATINOs REINVENT THE U.S. CITY 59 (2000). 2. ILAN STAvANS, THE HIsPANIc CONDITION: THE POWER OF A PEOPLE 91 (2nd ed. 2001) (1995). 3. HELEN SIMONS & CATHRYN A. HoyT, A GUIDE TO HIsPANIC TEXAS 93 (1996) (describing Reynosa's founding and early years). 4. The names of the couple and their family have been changed to protect their anonymity.

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