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In 1846 Mexico and The United States entered a war against each other over the territory of Texas. The war angered both sides and created lasting tension between the two countries.
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The Treaty of Guadelupe ended the Mexican-American War and the border began to form. This is the initial seperation between the two countires.
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The first border patrol was established to stop Asians from entering the United States through the Mexico/US border.
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This caused a large number of Mexican citizens to flee to the United States to avoid the war. Within ten years more than 890,000 legal Mexican Immigrants came to the United States. This can be viewed as the beginning of large amounts of immigration from Mexico to the United States.
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An Immigration Act was passed that mandated a literacy test for immigrants and documented them based on where they were going, where they were coming from, and a physical description. This was the beginning of restriction on Mexican Immigrants and has impacted a lot of the immigration laws that followed it.
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This act made it so that immigrants were counted as “quota immigrants” and limitations were created about how many of these “quota immigrants” were allowed each year. This greatly impacted the amount of immigrants that came to America each year.
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More than 89,000 Mexicans came to the United States on permanent visas. There were no quotas or limitations on how many immigrants could come to the United States.
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By 1954 Border Patrol had seized over 865,000 illegal immigrants. Police started to swarm the barrios near the border and deport immigrants who were here illegally. They even went as far as stopping "Mexican looking" people and asking for identification. Several people were so scared to be deported that they fled back to Mexico on their own. This was the beginning of racial profiling by the American government and resembles some of the actions the government has taken more recently.
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This version of the act repealed the quota system, and instead created a system based on the reunification of families and on needed skills.
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400 agents and vehicles formed a blockade in El Paso along the US/Mexico border. The goal was to prevent illegal immigration and the operation was an immediate success. the Immigration and Naturalization Service later recognized the success and permanently funded the operation.
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This act was made to encourage trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Tariffs were agreed to be eliminated as well as other barriers such as quotas. This lead to population growth and increased attention along the borderlands.
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President Clinton signed both the Immigration Reform, and the Immigration Responsability Act. Along with increasing fines for illegal aliens and providing additinal funds for border patrol, it approved the building of a 14ft. tall fence along parts of the border.
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For the first time, the United States and Mexico agreed on joining together in creating a strategy to handle the drug trafficking issues. This really brought the two countries together to work for a common goal.
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This Arizona law allows law enforcement officials to demand papers and identification from anyone they find suspicious. This sparked a lot of contraversy regarding racial profiling.
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Currently, Barack Obama is working to create a pathway to citizenship for the over 12 million illegal immigrants who currently live in the United States. His plan also includes fining these aliens and mandating they learn English.
