When I moved to DAllas in the 70's from Wisconsin they called me a Red River Wetback.
You must be really old to remember classy illegasls. I say so because in my day, when I was in the BP from 1979-1983, at least 50% of tonks that crossed illegally were lowlife scum but then I worked in southern CA and the wets there were known to usually be worse than those coming over in AZ, NM or TX for the most part. There were more than enough cholos and pachucos back then, the equivalent of what we call gang bangers today, and there were the so called El Salvadoran and Nicaraguan refugees who'd just as soon kill you as look at you as they fled what they had destroyed. Of course, we had wets from all over the world now and then and most were lowlifes of one sort or another. I gotta say, I saw little difference from then to 2009 & 2010 when I was on two 4 month details to AZ (which had become the crossing hotspot at that time) except that in those latter years - just about each and every coyote was armed with a firearm.
