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What do you know about the U.S and Mexico Border?
Art exhibit. Depicts the true reality of the American border. Created March 1983, Unknown artist
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Introduction
If one were to stop and look at the border today, you would see why many people in Mexico believe it is the land of opportunity. On the U.S side, you see somewhat green fields with suburban like houses and a huge shopping center. On the side of Mexico, you see so many houses tightly fit together, dirt and very few paved roads. You don’t see houses that look the nearly identical in size and design like the ones on the U.S side. The only visible paved road is the highway that is adjacent to the border fences dividing Mexico and the U.S. The border today has the design of three walls built in order to stop immigrants and drug smugglers from crossing into the United States. Most say it is because the United States did not want to allow anymore Mexicans in illegally. It was built as a way to monitor the Mexicans and limit them to gaining land and taking over the United States back in the late 1800’s. It is said that the very first wall, was not even a wall at all. It began as small barbed wire to divide the two countries as well as to distinguish the territory. So the question is was the first border wall created was to make it physically impossible for people to cross over? Was it because the barbed fence was no longer effective? In this website, I have decided to analyze the border fence through its design, as well as the significance and its effects to the people on both sides of it. With this, I would like to demonstrate and clarify why the border fences were built with specific designs and why people dislike the fence. . U.S immigration Border at Tijuana border. Looking north of Tijuana. 1915-1925.Border Patrol
What if I were to tell you that the border wall was built because border patrol could not handle so many people coming into the United States? Unfortunately this is true. The border patrol began first in Texas with a group called the Texas Rangers. They were rangers which would enforce the law by any means necessary. The Texas rangers were established in El Paso Texas in 1924. The Texas rangers basically “shaped and protected Anglo-American settlement…” (Hernandez, 19) and served useful when solving “disputes from Texas’ [Mexicans]” (Hernandez, 20); however, these rangers solved these problems in Texas in the most brutal ways. They were wise in their words but quicker in using their guns. If the Mexicans would kill one ranger, they would go and kill five Mexicans to prove a point, which was to not mess with the Texas rangers. As the news of the rangers began to spread along the western states, more and more people began to create their own versions of border patrol. It soon became that the “Border Patrol work in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands was almost entirely dedicated to the project of policing unsanctioned Mexican immigration” (Hernandez, 100). Many groups formed to either put a stop to people coming into the United States, or patrol that only the right people could enter the United States. It wasn’t until the signing of the bracero program that the border patrol was made official and served the purpose to serve the bracero’s coming into work. The large amounts of people migrating to the United States were a main reason for more enforcement along the wall. Why? Because many braceros ended up seeing what great opportunities were offered and crossed their families over with them. Many of the large migrations of people were either families from the men in the bracero program, or families who simply crossed over for better opportunities after the war. Even though many immigrants crossed illegally to the United States, border patrol was given the right to deport people found within 25 miles from the U.S and Mexico border. This decision was also made when the border patrol was established in 1925. Although more recruits were hired into the border patrol, the amount of people coming into the United States illegally was greater than they could handle. Since they were ineffective in rounding up every single individual due to the lack of resources, they made the decision of building a wall on the heaviest flows of illegal crossings. |