A.) Monuments
Placed
in T.J. Originally was placed without fence. But since so many people wanted a
piece of it, they put a fence so people would not take any
Monuments
From 1849 to 1855, after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, it was required that “the designation of a boundary line with due precision, upon authoritative maps, and to establish upon the ground landmarks which shall show the limits of both republics" (Dean, 2). In agreement, both countries would send a representative to mark the lines and make sure the territory was accurately divided. To make the division of territory, they used monuments or obelisks to mark the invisible line. There were over 276 monuments and obelisks created and set along the division of land. The monuments are located west of El Paso/Juarez to Tijuana/San Diego. As time passed, more and more people became noticed these monuments and it became a popular attraction. It was so popular that the government had to put a fence around some of the monuments because people began to chip pieces off of the monument to keep as a keep sake. Like visible on the picture to the top, the monument is established in the Tijuana/San Ysidro border around 1913. |
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B.) Border Stations
-1922 Picture is looking north of the mexico border.
This is the U.S border patrol
The border station
buildings were not physically established until the 1920’s. This was because
there began to be tighter immigration laws such as literacy tests began to be
conducted on crossing immigrants. This then was another reason for why people
avoided the main ports of entry and found other methods into the U.S. By doing
so, officials began to take note of new sections of entry and decided to begin
setting up border patrol stations to control the flow of traffic. Vehicles
began to be the new method of transportation.
Roads were constructed to make transportation easier, which caused the
popular ports of entry to expand and modernize. Like seen in the picture to the
top, the border patrol stations was established in 1922 on the border of the
U.S and Mexico border. You can also see in the image that the border patrol
agent is standing in the middle of the road, guarding to make sure no one gets
across and is properly inspected. In the image at the top of each web tab page,
you can see the border in its more modern form. The image was taken between
1930’s and 40’s on the Tijuana side facing the United States. If you were to
pay close attention, by that time the border patrol station already had methods
of blocking people from crossing the border without driving off. Both images
demonstrate little by little how difficult it became to come across into the
United States legally. To add to the increase of security at the borders, laws
like “the Volstead Act and the ratification of the 18th Amendment, prohibited
the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages between 1919 and 1933, [which] led to increased smuggling across international
boundaries” (GSA); thus, leading to an increase in border patrol searches and
agents.
C.) Border fence
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This then slowly lead to
the building of the border wall. “The United States built the barrier on the
U.S.-Mexico border to define its sovereign authority over its territory, to
protect the economic privileges of its population, and to protect a particular
way of life from other people who are perceived to have different value systems
(Jones)”. Rather than a barrier against
terrorism and cartel violence, it is a performance of the United States’
territory and boundaries; therefore, the walls that were built were to assist
the border stations in keeping people from crossing illegally. They were an aid
to the border patrol stations that received large amounts of people crossing
illegally. One of the first walls established was called the landing mat fence,
which was the first iron fence implemented. Later as an extension to this wall,
the carter curtain was put in place to make it a bit more difficult to cross
over. Providing sensors to detect illegal immigrants crossing were part of the new
military tactics helping to catch more people (Daily Aztec, 2). There were many
complaints from communities on both sides in the late 70’s when the wall was set
to be established. Some of the arguments included that it would physically hurt
and damage the immigrants who would try to cross over if this new design was
implemented.