Condemns Border Patrols.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 4, 1913:
Senator Fall Charges They Are Used to Oppress Americans.
WASHINGTON, March 3.— An attack on the policy pursued by the United States in patrolling the Mexican border during the Mexican revolutions was made in the Senate to-day by Senator Fall of New Mexico, a member of the special investigating committee that has conducted a recent inquiry into border conditions. Senator Fall asserted that the committee in its investigation along the border from San Diego, Cal., to New Orleans, frequently encountered cases where the armed forces of the United States had been used to arrest American citizens on American soil.
    "The American troops have been used to oppress American citizens in their own country," the Senator continued, "instead of being used to protect them when they were being robbed and murdered on this side of the border line. Americans have been thrown into prison and deprived of life and liberty.
    "This is not a single instance, but a condition that has been general along the border for over a year."
    Senator Fall reviewed in detail the testimony taken by the special committee, of which Senator Smith of Michigan was Chairman. He said scores of witnesses resident in Mexico testified that they hud been attacked simply because of their American citizenship.
    The United States, he complained, had extended no protection to those persons.
    "We would be much more justified in sending troops into Mexico than we were in sending marines into Nicaragua," he asserted.