Racial Violence on the U'SMexico Border

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Racial Violence on the U.S-Mexico Border
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Emma Lazarus, 1883

• Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with
  conquering limbs astride from land to land Here
  at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a
  mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the
  imprisoned lightening, and her name Mother of
  Exiles. Her mild eyes command the air-bridged
  welcome, Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp,
  cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired,
  your poor, your huddled masses yearning to
  breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming
  shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed
  to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

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Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

• Forty-Seventh Congress. Session I. 1882
• Chapter 126.-An act to execute certain treaty
  stipulations relating to Chinese. Preamble.
  Whereas, in the opinion of the Government of the
  United States the coming of Chinese laborers to
  this country endangers the good order of certain
  localities within the territory thereof.
  Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House
  of Representatives of the United States of
  America in Congress assembled, That from and
  after the expiration of ninety days next after
  the passage of this act, and until the expiration
  of ten years next after the passage of this act,
  the coming of Chinese laborers to the United
  States be, and the same is hereby, suspended and
  during such suspension it shall not be lawful for
  any Chinese laborer to come, or, having so come
  after the expiration of said ninety days, to
  remain within the United States.

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Main Eras and Major Themes

• Conquest
• 1835-60 Manifest Destiny
• 1860-1910 Creating a New Racial Order
• 1910-1942 Revolution and Backlash
• 1942-1965 Operation Wetback Braceros
• 1965-9/11/01 The Modern Border
• Post 9-11

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Main Points and Arguments

• U.S. Mexico Border was born in violence
• Cycles of Conquest and dispossession
• Most border history written to appease American
  beliefs about its own sense of righteousness
• History as patriotic propaganda and feel-good
  mythology
• Immigration policies based on race and economics,
  not just democratic principles
• Violence on the border was sanctioned by state
  and territorial officials to maintain racial
  order

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Conquest

• Conquistadors expanded the Spanish empire in
  search of labor and gold
• Missions and presidios on northern Spanish
  Borderlands
• Racial conflict with Apaches, Comanches,
  Tonkawas, Tohono OOdham
• Pope Pueblo Revolt 1680 De Vargas
  Reconquista
• 1700s-1815 weak frontier, growing influence of
  Americans Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark,
  Expeditions and border skirmishes

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The Alamo Myth and History

• Post-Mexican Independence, 1824
• Mexican Colonization Laws 1830
• American Immigration
• Illegal American Immigrants violate Mexican
  Constitution slavery, land theft
• Tejas and Coahuilla statehood
• Texas Independence the Alamo
• Myth of the Alamo

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U.S.-Mexico Disputed Area
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Manifest Destiny, 1835-1860

• U.S. rejects Texas bid for annexation
• President Polk and other empire builders want
  expansion
• Fabricate a border war as excuse for invasion
  Blood on American Soil
• U.SMexico War, 1846-48
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Gadsden Purchase

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A New Border
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Ulysses S. Grant

• I do not think there ever was a more wicked war
  than that waged by the United States in Mexico.
  I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster,
  only I had not the moral courage enough to
  resign.

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Abraham Lincoln

• "...the president unnecessarily and
  unconstitutionally commenced a war with
  Mexico....The marching an army into the midst of
  a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the
  inhabitants away, leaving their growing crops and
  other property to destruction, to you may appear
  a perfectly amiable, peaceful, un- provoking
  procedure but it does not appear so to us.

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Colonel A. Hitchcock, 1847

• The United States are the aggressors. We have
  not one particle of right to be here....It looks
  as if the government sent a small force on
  purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a
  pretext for taking California and as much of this
  country as it chooses....My heart is not in this
  business." 

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Commentary

• February 11, 1847
• The "Congressional Globe" "We must march from
  ocean to ocean....We must march from Texas
  straight to the Pacific ocean....It is the
  destiny of the white race, it is the destiny of
  the Anglo-Saxon Race." 
• American Review writes of Mexicans "yielding
  to a superior population, insensibly oozing into
  her territories, changing her customs, and
  out-living, exterminating her weaker blood." 

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Creating a Racial Order

• Post Treaty states and territories passed laws
  violating Mex Am civil rights
• Many declared non-citizens due to Indian
  blood, barred from court, voting
• Indians onto reservations or Indian Territory
• Railroads connected border to world economy
• Anglo immigration increased, upset old racial
  order, increased racial violence

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Racial Hegemony

• ApacheGeronimo
• Political corruption (Santa Fe Ring)
• Thomas Catron 1860s-1870s
• Colluded with politicians, speculators
• 34 land grants for himself 2 million acres
• Ku Klux Klan
• Sons of the Golden West
• Japanese Exclusion League

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Violence and Resistance

• Juan Cortina (Brownsville)
• Gregorio Cortez
• Salt War of 1877
• Juaquin Murrieta
• Las Gorras Blancas

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Texas Lone Star State

• Texas Rangers
• Ethnic conflict and Ethnic cleansing
• Sul Ross The Whiteman
• South Texas 1902-1918 poll taxes, white primary,
  segregated education
• Progressive newspapers view of Mexicans in 1913,
  a class of foreigners who claim American
  citizenship but who are as ignorant of things
  American as a mule.

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Mexican Revolution

• Internal and external origins
• Porfiriato Order and Progress
• Foreign ownership of Mexican industry
• Railroads, mining, exports
• Land loss
• Peasant rebellion against Porfirio Diaz and
  American capitalists

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American Incursions

• General John Blackjack Pershing and Pancho
  Villa
• Columbus, New Mexico
• Arizona
• Pancho Villa and El Paso
• Estimated 75 U.S. incursions into Mexico between
  1850 and 1929 (Anderson)
• U.S. gave itself the right to unilaterally
  enter Mexico, after Mexico rejected such a treaty

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Racial Terrorism and Backlash

• El Plan de San Diego
• Socio-economic rebellion
• Texas Rangers massive violence
• _at_ 5,000 dead

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Texas Rangers, 1915
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The Border and Immigration

• States and territories regulated immigration
  until the Supreme Court in 1875 declared it a
  federal responsibility
• Immigration Act of 1882
• Entry tax, prohibited undesirables
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1883
• Alien Contract Labor Laws of 1885 1887
• Immigration Act of 1891
• Unclean, unstable, polygamists,
• Ellis Island, El Paso Angel Island

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Laws and Policies

• Naturalization Act of 1790 whites only
• State Boards and Commissions under direction of
  the U.S. Treasury Department
• U.S. Customs officials and Chinese Inspectors
• 1891 Law created Office of the Superintendent of
  Immigration Service, in Treasury Dept
• 1903 transferred the Bureau of Immigration to the
  Department of Labor and Commerce
• Basic Naturalization Act of 1906 added
  Naturalization to the Bureau of Immigration

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The Border and Immigration, cont

• 1913 Bureau of Imm and Nat divided into
  different Bureaus within the Dept of Labor
• 1917 Immigration Act (literacy)
• 1924 Reed-Johnson Act (1890 Census)
• Did not target Mexicans
• 1924 Border Patrol created
• Fused two Bureaus into INS
• 1940 moved INS to the Dept of Justice

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La Migra, 1920s
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Unintended Consequences

• 18th Amendment Prohibition Volstead Act
  (1920-1930s)
• U.S. businesses produced alcohol in border towns,
  smuggled north with Mexican assistance
• Border towns as places of vice (alcohol,
  gambling, prostitution)
• Myths of Donkey Shows and Easy Mexicanas
• El Paso/Juárez San Diego/Tijuana
• Military bases and prostitution (Ft. Bliss)
• U.S. Fraternities

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The Great Depression Repatriation

• Round-ups by U.S. Immigration Service
• L.A. County chartered trains for 12,000 Mexicans
• CO sent 20,000 banned foreign labor
• Mexican Texan citizens were denied relief by
  city, county, state agencies
• Deported Mexicans and New Mexican migrants
• Over 500,000 deported roughly half forcefully

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World War Two and Bracero Program

• Urbanization, Industrialization War Service
• Used high school students, Japanese-American
  internees, prisoners.
• Turned to Mexico created Bracero Program in
  1942

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The Bracero Program

• Corporate farmers, states and federal govt
  solicited Mexican workers or passively encouraged
  thembefore 1940s
• Program lasted from 1942-1964
• 1 yr contracts paid 75 prevailing wage
• Mex govt initially refused to send them to Texas
• 4.5 million in program

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Bracero Program and Racial Policitics

• Corporate farmers, state governors, and federal
  govt solicited Mexican workers or passively
  encouraged thembefore 1940s
• Soldiers returned and altered labor demands
• 1952 Mexico asked U.S. to pass Public Law 283
  prohibiting importation of non-braceros
• Mexico wanted better wages, contracts, and
  working conditions for its workers in the U.S.,
  which refused, so U.S. neglected bracero program

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The Illegal Alien

• 1950s
• Business contracting stations on the border,
  illegal immigration grew
• Mex reforms blended with anti-Mexicanism and the
  image of an Alien Invasion of Mexicans with
  diseases, immorality, crime, welfare

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Operation Wetback

• Reaction to Illegal Immigration
• 1954 Border Patrol immigrant round-ups
• 1 million deported in military style
• Growers wanted workers, so legal Braceros grew
• 1959 feds tightened laws for farmers wanting
  braceros, so illegal immigration grew

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The Modern Border, 1964-9/11/01

• 1964 Bracero Program ended, undocumented
  immigration grew
• 1964 Maquiladoras first built
• 1965 Immigration Act amended the 1952 Immigration
  and Nationality Act
• Limited immigration from Western Hemisphere to
  120,000
• Exceptions for family re-unification commuters,
  guest workers, green carders

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Turning Points and Observations

• 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act
• Employer sanctions
• Eligibility for citizenship for residents since
  1982
• 2 million gained citizenship
• 90 of Californias agricultural labor force in
  1990 was foreign born
• 1994 California Proposition 187
• No social services

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Xenophobia

• 1970s San Diego, Tom Metzinger reorganized the
  KKK into the White Aryan Resistance
• 1974-5 INS sweeps of Mexicans in El Paso
  resulted in deportation of dozens of U. S.
  citizens
• 1979 El Paso, border fences and walls,
  observation towers
• 1980s U.S. English, English Only movement
• 1990s Police, Border Patrol, INS conduct sweeps
  in Chandler, Arizona, arresting several citizens

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NAFTA 1994

• Free Trade and neo-liberal policies
• U.S. continued price supports, subsidies, tariffs
  
• U.S. Jobs, continuing a trend since
  deindustrialization in the 1970s, went south and
  overseas
• Maquiladoras boomed, attracted more migrants
  increased populations in under-developed cities.
  
• Surplus and expendable populations
• U.S. Job losses contributed to anti-Mexicanism
• High standard cost of living precluded
  Americans from working in agr., meat packing,
  construction, service sector and other segments
  of economy

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Militarization of the Border

• Operation Hold the Line Gatekeeper
• Texas-based Ranch Rescue
• American Border Patrol
• Civilian Homeland Defense
• Minutemen
• Shortsighted responses and narrow view of larger
  U.S. policies and globalization that force poor
  people to trek across the desert and die in
  search of work

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Post 9/11

• Everything Changed and did not change
• Massive build-up on southern border when 9/11
  bombers came in from Canada, overstayed legally
  acquired visas
• Fused national security with anti-Mexicanism
• U.S. agribusiness and other sectors fear loss of
  cheap, seasonal labor pool
• Minutemen part of long xenophobic tradition
• Other helps bind the nation and justify largest
  concentration of presidential power in U.S.
  History
• Sensenbrenner Bill