Mexico and America

¶ … border control fiasco between the United States and Mexico is a direct extension of past policies and propaganda. Beginning with the Mexican-American War and the American victory at the Alamo, the relationship between the two countries has been strained. What used to be Mexican territory became the province of the United States, which used its worldview of manifest destiny to invite unfettered plundering and land settlements in what is now the West and Southwest.

Crucial issues to consider when investigating the history of the U.S.-Mexican border include racism and white nativism, which contributed to the view of all non-white migrants as being undesirable members of the American populace. As Hernandez (2010) points out, the labor market and the dictates of emerging agro-business interests were also critical elements in the ways U.S. Border Control practices and policies evolved. Like Native Americans and African-Americans, Mexicans and Asians were targets of violence and slander.

It is also important to note that the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol enabled vigilante justice, and in some ways, continues to do so today. The decentralized, maverick organization of the U.S. Border Patrol translated the mandate for comprehensive migration control -- viewed as a necessity for preserving American values -- into a project of policing all Mexicans on the frontera. Migration control is something that Americans now take for granted as a necessary foreign and domestic policy.

However, the United States government has manipulated its migration policies to suit its own needs, overlooking humanitarian and ethical issues as a result. By labeling Mexicans as "illegals," the Border Patrol essentially criminalizes an entire group of people. The media and politicians likewise propagate and disseminate information that portrays Mexicans as criminals or at least, as undesirables. Interestingly, the expansion of agro-business in the regions that were once part of Mexico -- such as California -- led to the paradoxical situation evident still in the 21st century.

That is, agro-businesses required massive numbers of cheap laborers on a seasonal basis. These businesses therefore wanted unfettered access to what was essentially a gray labor market. Migrant workers served the best interests of big business and racists alike, and the policy allowed for the exploitation of labor in ways that was politically and socially sanctioned. Hernandez (2010) shows how using migrant labor allowed for greater control over the labor force due to the constant threat of deportation.

Mexican migrant workers were submissive because it was either submit to the inhumane treatment and low wages or refuse the work. The U.S. Border Patrol became a symbol of Anglo-American dominance over the region. Using violence and intimidation, the U.S. Border Patrol created a social, political, and economic structure that permanently altered the balance of power in the region. In Migra!, Hernandez (2010) shows how a multitude of often conflicting voices contributed to the debate over how to best address the border's social, economic, and political realities.

Capitalists and industrialists had their own interests in mind; Anglo nativists and Mexican-American activists clashed on ideological and sociological issues; and politicians on both sides of the border also disagreed as to how the border should be patrolled. Moreover, the U.S. Border Patrol emerged and evolved during a crucial era in American history. The United States was becoming more federalized in many ways. The tension between anti-federalist and federalist policies is especially evident in border patrol issues, because the U.S.

Border Patrol was at once beholden to federal mandates but also operated independently as if in a rogue nation of its own. As Hernandez (2010) points out, the Border Patrol officers themselves enjoyed upward social mobility through their positions, and they also enabled the emergence of a white Anglo landowning class among new settlers. Targeting Mexican migrant workers was the means by which these groups of people could assert and maintain their social status. It was not just Mexicans that were the target of oppression, but also Asians.

Hernandez (2010) describes a series of anti-immigrant acts that impacted multiple groups, from the "Anti-Coolie Act to the discourse over "wetbacks" that ensued throughout the middle of the twentieth century. Workers who had expected seasonal labor became targets of major campaigns of violence, meted by the border patrol itself. Unrest in Mexico did not help matters. Especially after the downfall of Porfirio Diaz and the emergence of a new Constitution south of the border, Mexicans fled in droves to the United States.

The Mexican government preferred to lose its most vocal critics of the government -- the agricultural workers -- rather than address their concerns.