The United States and Mexico border fence has been a recent debate with the people because of the irresistible flow of Mexican illegal in the United States. Living in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I may be able to see a huge wall or fence being built on our border with Mexico. Other than the economic recession we have to this day, people still have their views and opinions expressed on another topic, the “segregation” wall. Some express opinions on whether this wall will keep illegal immigrants out, others speak on how this is a total disaster both financially and emotionally as in this wall being referred to as “racist”.
An article written by the economist Robert J. Samuelson: Build a Fence—And Amnesty a few years ago, states his position on immigration control clearly. He clearly states we should build the fence first and amnesty should come in second. Samuelson points out; the short (10 mile) fence near San Diego has dropped trafficking of illegal by around 95% in that area, showing a fence can work. He believes we should crack down employers with illegal workers with...
The border wall debate has become one of the most significant talking points in the United States and countries around the world. Many people believe that the wall is unnecessary and many think that it is necessary. Building a border wall may cost billions of dollars, but it might be able to save the country money as well. Some positive impacts of a border wall are for example a decline in apprehension rates, creating a safer America and putting a damper on the flow of illegal drugs. As well as the positive impacts, we will look at the negative implications as well. Some of these are that the symbolism, cost, effect of diversity, environmental impact and the higher death impact.
United States started the war with Mexico due to its imperial ambitions and need for territorial expansion. America was modernizing itself and getting ready to engage in competition with Europe. Capitalism and modernization fueled the competition for resources to feed the industries, and the markets to sell the manufactured goods. A country in this world was either an exploiter or the exploited by that order of things. Being neither one of those was the hardest to achieve. Americans decided to be exploiters; therefore, they needed to engage in competition with Europe, a group of empires dominating the world. To successfully compete with Europe, America needed the natural resources and advantage over trading routes Asia to engage profitable in business with Asian territories. Another reason Americans engaged in war with Mexico was to avoid domestic instability and chaos that would slow down its imperial progress. Issues of economic crisis and slavery were vital to solve. The U.S needed to justify their actions; thus, they put the blame on Mexico for starting the war. The War with Mexico was a significant event since it was the largest U.S military expansion for the reasons of modernization covered up as an act of self-defense.
The state of Texas faces several issues year round. The state and government agencies pursue to find solutions for these problems. One of the solutions is to finish the border wall to prevent this from happening. Since Texas borders with Mexico one of the main issues it faces is immigration and the trafficking of drugs. The borders along the south side of Texas are an easy pathway to get the immigrants and drugs into the country.
The immigration debate has been in the news a great deal recently. Most of the attention has been focused on the illegal immigrants entering our country from Mexico, mostly Hispanics and Latinos. Uncontrolled immigration is harmful to the United States. It harms the American worker and it harms the American economy. The open borders are a threat to national security because terrorists, smugglers, and drug dealers can also freely cross the border. These key facts cannot be ignored and outweigh the claims that race and ethnicity are part of the debate. Immigration should be restricted and a better I.D. system would help stabilize the immigration problem.
The border region has seen “rapid transformation in a short span of time, changing from a cattle ranching and mining area that attracted U.S., Mexican and European capitalists…to the center of a lucrative vice and pleasure-based tourist industry, to a region that …attracted an extraordinary amount of international capital to its manufacturing and services sector”. (Ganster/Lorey 2) Events and years such as the implementation of the railroad, the years before the Mexican Revolution, the land reform in 1936 and 1937, the implementation of the maquiladora program and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a significant impact on the U.S. Mexican Borderlands.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1948 would have lasting negative effects on Mexican Americans. The Treaty was signed after America had won the Mexican American war. America gained possession of the southwest states that had been part of Mexico for the price of around eighteen million dollars. In Article IX of the Treaty, it states that the Mexicans "shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction"(Vargas 139). And as Rachel Rivera points out Article VII promised the Mexicans the right to keep their land which previously belonged to Mexico. However, the Treaty would not grant the Mexicans the rights it offered. For the next hundred and twenty years the Mexicans would be oppressed and discriminated against because of the Treaty. The Treaty was the beginning of the hardships for the Mexicans. They would have to survive in the developing white society. The white society would grow and grow in the southwest, turning the Mexicans into a minority. In Zaragosa Vargas’s book Major Problems in Mexican American History, Vargas delves deeper into the problems of Mexican American History. In our Latinos in the U.S. class, we have discussed the fact that Mexicans in the United States have dealt with many problems which have gone ignored by mainstream society. The website Chicano Park illustrates how Mexican Americans have used art as a collective voice. The documentary Chicano! focuses on how the people found their voice. In the film we see that the social movements of the 1960’s allowed Mexican Americans to raise their voice against the discrimination they had lived with for over a centu...
In 2006, “President George Bush passed the Secure Fence Act where every mile of Yuma’s border with Mexico contained a fence or vehicle barrier” (Jeunesse, 2015). While this had a positive impact for Yuma with reducing the amount of illegal immigrant crossing and smuggling. Many challenges for the Hispanic arose as well. Not only is it the hours of waiting to cross the border and death of those that try to jump the fence that don’t make it but, the impact this has made on the separation of families and society in the united states. Now it is harder for immigrants to get transported to get over the border but to get a job itself in the United states. Those that are legal citizens in Yuma county there are several cases of separation of families that still live in Mexico because they are considered illegal immigrants. Traveling to one another has been a lot more complicated than it was years ago. Many will feel isolated from the other cultures of the world because of the
Ngai, Mae M., and Jon Gjerde. "Minutemen Call for Border Security First, Only, and Now, 2006." Major Problems in American Immigration History: Documents and Essays. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013. 585-586. Print.
Walls are built up all over the world. They have many purposes and uses. The most common use of a wall is to divide a region. One of these famous walls is the Berlin Wall, which was constructed in 1961. This Wall was erected to keep East Berlin out of West Berlin, and even America had its own wall well before this one. There were a few major differences though. America’s wall, in contrast, was not a physical one that kept capitalism from communism. America’s wall was of a psychological variety, and it spread across most of the nation. America’s wall was more of a curtain in the fact that one could easily pull it aside to see what behind it, but if one didn’t want to they didn’t. This curtain was what separated whites and blacks in America, and one famous writer, James Baldwin, felt there was a need to bring it down. He felt that one should bring it down while controlling his or her emotions caused by the division. One of the best places to see the bringing down of the curtain and the effects that it had on the nation is where the curtain was its strongest, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Over the last several decades, violence has consumed and transformed Mexico. Since the rise of dozens of Mexican cartels, the Mexican government has constantly been fighting an ongoing war with these criminal organizations. The cartel organizations have a primary purpose of managing and controlling illegal drug trafficking operations in Central America and South America to the United States. Violence on a massive and brutal scale has emerged due to the nature of the illegal drug trade. Because the drug trade is vastly widespread, cartels are often fighting one another and competing in business. Mexican authorities count at least 12 major cartels, but also talk of an untold numbers of smaller splinter groups. (Taipei Times). Five cartels from Mexico have risen to become the extremely powerful amongst all the drug organizations operating in Mexico. The Guadalajara Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the Gulf Cartel. These organizations, along with other distinguished Mexican cartels, have plagued Mexico with violence, terror, and fear due to the essence and nature of illegal drug trafficking.
The fence was built directly through backyards and farms taking part of many homes and lands. Many citizens were angry because they thought that they were being “punished” and taken for granted with building the wall near them. Many believed that they were targeted to build it there because they had little money to fight the government. Despite the complains the border has also been a place where criminals sometimes pass illegal weapons and drugs to the United States for business and money.
The United States and Mexican border has been the focus of an abundant amount of controversy the past decade in the States. The border wall, or border fence, is one of several barriers preventing illegal Mexican and South American immigrants from entering the United States. However, as statistics prove, immigration and drug smuggling has been on the rise the past few decades and our “three prong approach” is not confronting the escalating issue at hand. America’s border security is not resilient enough to deter these illegal immigrants and drug smugglers; our border wall must be fortified immediately.
Over the past 10 years the number of illegal immigrant in the United States has risen from 5-12 million. This eventually opens the eyes of policyholders to the effects of illegal immigration on incomes and public finances, as well as potential safety threats posed by unauthorized entry into the states. President Bush signed into the secure fence act which authorized the spending of $1.2 billion for the construction of a seven-hundred-mile fence along the U.S- Mexico border. I guess this was the only solution to actually try to cut down the amount of illegal immigrants that were invading the U.S.
One of the major issues surrounding border security is illegal immigration, “For the past two decades the United States, a country with a strong tradition of limited government, has been pursuing a widely popular initiative that requires one of the most ambitious expansions of government power in modern history: securing the nation’s borders against illegal immigration” (Alden, 2012). Many people are trying to enter the United States without the proper documentation and everyday they risk their lives and others just to make it across these borders. To avoid this law enforcement and other border security has threatened these illegal immigrants with detainment and arrest and different forms of punishment. In the efforts to deter the problem, it has been far beyond feasible because they still manage to get across and it does not change their intention...
In 1519 Hernán Cortés led a couple hundred other Spaniards inland to the impressive Empire of the Mexica ruled by the Great Montezuma. Many historians today tell how quickly and almost effortlessly these Spaniards conquered the Empire. They paint an image of ignorant, helpless Indians practically giving up their land out of fear of this group because certainly the Spaniards must be gods since they have powerful weapons and strange animals. We know neither Cortés nor any of his men were gods, of course, but what was it that allowed Cortés to prevail over the inhabitants of the land?