Growing Up Border Patrol

Photo: <a href="http://www.borderpatrolmuseum.com/GiftShop.asp">National Border Patrol Museum</a>

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The United States Border Patrol turned 85 this week. What better way to celebrate than by indoctrinating American youth?

Below, four examples of kid-friendly border patrol fun:

Border Patrol Explorers

This summer camp teaches teens how to shoot weapons and make arrests. Many go on to become real Border Patrol agents when they grow up.

Border Patrol Online Game

The mission: “Keep them out…at any cost!”

The victims: Mexican drug smugglers and “breeders”—pregnant women with children.

The US Border Patrol: Guarding the Nation

A children’s book full of suspense: “It’s a dark night in Texas. Some people are trying to sneak across the Mexican border.…(Agents) zoom to the scene. They arrest the people crossing the border. Then they send them back to their own country.”

National Border Patrol Museum

Includes gee-whiz memorabilia like an original Border Patrol boat, plus a gift shop with BP Hot Wheels, temporary tattoos, and infant beanies. Museum motto? “Where Heroes and Legends Come Alive.”

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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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