Boy Scout's 'Border Control' patch depicting fleeing immigrants causes uproar among Latinos

By Nina Golgowski
PUBLISHED: 08:53 EST, 6 April 2012
UPDATED: 12:55 EST, 6 April 2012
UK Daily Mail:

A Boy Scout patch depicting the silhouette of fleeing immigrants has caused a stir among a group of Latinos who are calling it racist.

The badge worn by the dominantly Latino scouts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin mirrors an iconic sign featuring a man, woman and child fleeing which was commonly used along the Mexico-United States border.

The sign served as a warning to drivers of immigrants crossing. Its original image, by Navajo artist John Hood, hangs in the Smithsonian.

Uproar: An unofficial Boy Scouts of America patch depicting fleeing immigrants taken from a road sign has caused a stir among a Latino website that's calling it racist

The badge, first reported by website Latino Rebels, was headlined by the site as: 'Unauthorized (and Racist) "Border Patrol" Boy Scout Patch Chosen by Latino Troop Members.'

They reached out to the Boy Scouts of America late last month for comment.

'Neither the United States Border Patrol or the Boy Scouts of America were involved in the naming of the patrol, or the production or distribution of the patch,' BSA Communications Specialist David Burke responded in a statement to Latino Rebels.

The troop 11 members told the website they first created it about 10 years ago after one of its current leaders saw the iconic black and yellow road sign in Texas around 2002.

Inspiration: The image was inspired by roadsigns commonly found along the Mexican-US border and transferred to a patch for the troop based in Wisconsin who is dominantly Latino themselves

'The patch is used to symbolize that a scout is part of the "border" patrol,' troop 11 assistant scoutmaster Bradley Schultz responded to the website by email.

According to Mr Burke, each BSA troop is composed of 20 to 60 young men but then divided again into patrols of about 5 to 9.

'Each patrol gets to select its own patrol name. Patrol names can be just about anything the boys decide,' Mr Burke wrote.

'We knew we wanted to be named Border, but we wanted an image to go with it,' Mr Schultz wrote while adding that it most likely will be changing.

Border Patrol: The boys of troop 11 independently selected their patrol name as Border then decided on the patch's image which all together was not affiliated with the BSA (file photo)
'...we have been told by our council that if we don't change the NAME of the patrol the troop will be disbanded as a whole. The troop would most likely be willing to consider changing the image if we were allowed to keep the name, Border Patrol.'

Defending the name and image entirely for troop 11's scouts, assistant scoutmaster Ryan Antczak responded to Latino Rebels with his own statement:

'They wanted this because they didn't wanna be associated with those that come to our country illegally. This has been part of our troop for almost 10 years,' he wrote.

'We are located in a very diverse area were [sic] the majority of Latin decent. No one has been offended till this day. We are not embarrassed by a branch of our government that serve this country proudly who put their lives on the line.'