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from the U.S. Immigration Service patrolled the Canadian and Mexican borders on horseback. Many of those working for the patrol in the 1920s were former Texas Rangers, local sheriffs, and deputies. Each had to provide his own horse and saddle, although the government furnished food for the horses. The government also gave the inspectors a badge and a gun. The government paid the in-

Modern moves: Vehicles such as this ATV are able to reach just about anywhere in search of trouble at a border.

spectors $1,680 a year (still only about $20,000 in today’s dollars). At the time, only a few people took the job. As a result, the army was often called to patrol the border. In the early 1920s, the need to secure the borders increased greatly after the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed. That amendment out- lawed the importation , transporta- tion, and consumption of alcohol. Because of the law, known as Prohibi- tion, smugglers and gangsters did a

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