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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed.
This treaty ended the war between the United States and Mexico and established and installed peace. The treaty called for the United States to give Mexico money, but gave the U.S. ownership of California, and large areas of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado, establishing today's borderlands. With those areas becoming American property, many of the Mexicans who lived there had the choice to become American citizens and did. -
Introduction of the Fourteenth amendment
The very first sentence of this amendment is the ‘Citizenship Clause’ which states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
I believe this is very applicable to the current immigration issues of today because many illegal immigrants come to America to give birth to their children to give them a better life and education on American soil. -
The Naturalization Act causes the creation of Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization
This act and this new government department formed the basic procedures to become an America citizen. These specific procedures have been under observation for a long time when it comes to illegal immigrants from Mexico. Most don’t have the time or the money to go through the system so they just ‘hopped the fence’ and came on over. Therefore this bureau and its policies have been contemplated on for years to see if there is a better more efficient and legal way to get handle immigrants. -
Mexican revolution causes many Mexicans to come across the US-Mexican border.
With tensions high in Mexico many Mexicans came north to take advantage of the new United States jobs in railroad, mining and mainly agriculture. This solidified a quite large population of Mexicans in the now Borderland areas of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. This attributed to many feelings and attitudes toward people of Mexican decent because of the way they were depicted in the media and the relations between their home country and America. -
US Border Patrol Established with Labor Appropriation Act of 1924
This act officially established the U.S. Border Patrol. Men were hired with the purpose if ‘securing’ the border. This creates the idea that we need protection from the other side of the border and thus creates further division between the citizens of Mexico and those of America. This eventually becomes what we know today as U.S. Customs and Border Control and have come to play such as huge aspect in today’s current events with the U.S. Mexico Border relations and issues. -
Beginning of Mexican “Repatriation Act” and the forcing of Mexican Immigrants back to Mexico
The immigration departments of the United States government began targeting Mexicans in the Borderlands that weren’t citizens. These people who had been living in the United States for years were forced back to Mexico. There was a lot of discrimination during the period from 1929-1936 toward illegal immigrants. -
Bracero Program was initiated.
When the series of laws and agreements called the Bracero Program was put into place it brought a couple million Mexican workers temporarily in to the United States to work on Farms and Railroads and such jobs. I believe this reinforced this idea of racial hierarchy. Because men from Mexico had to come to our ‘superior’ country to get work and because they were only their to do the slaving grunt work. This depicts Mexicans as under educated, even though that was not the case. -
The Bracero Program Ended
Even though the Mexican government was interested in renewing the deal, the United States did not because immigrant workers were coming into the country without papers and outside of the agreed upon laws. This began the era of undocumented workers coming from Mexico for work under the threat of deportation. -
The Immigration Act of 1990
This act increased the limit on legal immigration and revised the rules for deportation. Visas were changed and made more 'work specific'. Much of the act was based around family reunification. -
The Secure Border Initiative Introduced
The Bush administration introduced an initiative that installed more border patrol, heavily enforced immigration laws, upgrade in technology, increased investment for new systems and infrastructure, additional precautions to reduce illegal border crossing, and all around more brute force on sight to enforce protection of the U.S. Borders. -
The Secure Fence Act
The Secure Fence Act authorizes fencing between the United States and Mexico. Apparently the danger was so real that a fence was put up. That doesn’t necessarily scream safety. This was a true move against illegal immigration, terrorism and contraband.
This is specifically important because now there is truly a fence that one must pass through to get to the other country. -
Arizona Bill (SB 1070) Signed into Law
This super controversial law was signed into law by Governor, Jan Brewer. It made it a state crime to be in the country illegally, and required legal immigrants to carry paperwork proving their status among other things. This policy made it legal for Arizona police to question anyone they 'reasonably suspect' of being undocumented. This was scrutinized because it was believed to be a good avenue to create racism and encouraged widespread racial profiling. -
Secure Border Initiative Canceled
The Secure Border Initiative-network was costing a lot of money. It so far included a high-tech surveillance system to reinforce observation and reduce border smuggling. It had costed taxpayers almost $1 billion in two regions in Arizona. According to a homeland security report it had grown to cover just about 53 miles overall on the 2,000-mile border. With a decrease in the overall illegal immigration statistics the government canceled this expensive program. -
US Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Law Penalizing Businesses That Hire Undocumented Immigrants
The Arizona law that penalized businesses that hire illegal immigrants upheld in court. This lets Arizona keep its law that they can suspend or revoke the licenses of these business. This was an issue because a lot of work in Arizona is fueled by the cheap labor that immigrants can provide. With high demand for jobs like this it would be hard for Arizona to completely penalize everyone. Although it did show that Arizona is serious about stopping illegal immigration and writing laws to do so. -
President Obama Signs Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
This allowed a large portion of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to remain in the country without fear of deportation. This undermined Congress a bit and changed the U.S. Homeland Security rules of deportation of illegal immigrants.This particular move seems to be a way the government is becoming ‘understanding’ of the issues of illegal immigration and the devastation of deportation.
