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Early history
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U.S.-Mexico relations grew out of the earlier relations
between the fledgling nation of the United States and the
Spanish Empire. Modern Mexico formed the core area of the
Viceroyalty of New Spain at the time the United States gained
independence from Great Britain in the American
Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Spain had served as an ally to
the American colonists in that war.
The aspect of Spanish-American relations that would bear
most prominently on later relations between the U.S. and
Mexico was the ownership of Texas. In the early 19th century
the United States claimed that Texas was part of the territory
of Louisiana, and therefore had been rightfully acquired by
the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase from
France in 1803. The Spanish, however, claimed it was not, as
the western boundaries of Louisiana were not clearly defined.
In 1819 the dispute was resolved with the signing of the
Adams–Onís Treaty, in which the United States relinquished
its claims to Texas and instead purchased Spanish Florida.
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In 1821 Mexico finally gained independence from Spain,
and was soon recognized by the United States. The two
countries quickly established diplomatic relations. Both
Mexico and the United States respected the boundaries
established by the Adams–Onís Treaty, but certain
elements in the United States were greatly displeased
with the treaty, as it relinquished rights to Texas. Texas
remained a focal point of U.S-Mexico relations for
decades. The relationship was further affected by internal
struggles within the two countries: in Mexico these
included concerns over the establishment of a centralized
government, while in the United States it centered
around the debate over the expansion of slavery.
Beginning in the 1820s Americans and other nonMexicans began to settle in eastern Texas in large
numbers. These settlers, known as Texians, were
frequently at odds with the Mexican government. Their
disagreements led to the Texas Revolution, one of a
series of independence movements that came to the fore
following the 1835 amendments to the Constitution of
Mexico, which substantially altered the governance of
the country.
Prior to the Texas Revolution the general public of the
United States was indifferent to Texas, but afterward,
public opinion was increasingly sympathetic to the
Texians. Following the war a Republic of Texas was
declared, though independence was not recognized by
Mexico, and the boundaries between the two were never
agreed upon.
In 1845 the United States annexed Texas, leading to a
major border dispute and eventually to the MexicanAmerican War.
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The Mexican- American War
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The Mexican-American War was fought from 1846
to 1848.The war started for the dispute of the border
between Texas and Mexico.
The United States believed the border was the Rio
Bravo (known in the U.S. as Rio Grande). Mexico
believed the border was the Nueces River. In the
1840s the United States annexed Texas and in 1845
Texas became a state.
Officially, however, Texas still belonged to Mexico
and when U.S. troops under General Zachary Taylor
crossed into Texas, Mexico sent troops, considering
the move as an act of war by the U.S. This eventually
resulted in President Polk declaring war on Mexico.
The war proved disastrous for Mexico.
In September 1847 U.S. troops under General
Winfield Scott invaded Mexico City. The war ended
in a decisive U.S. victory, and as a result Mexico was
forced to sell all of its northernmost territory,
including California and New Mexico to the United
States in the Mexican Cession.
Additionally, Mexico relinquished its claims to Texas,
and the United States forgave Mexico's debts to U.S.
citizens. In 1853 the United States purchased
additional land from Mexico in the Gadsden
Purchase.
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/
2010/01/remeber-this-the-gadsden-purchase/
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The “War on Drugs”
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The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign
military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the
United States government, with the assistance of
participating countries, intended to both define and reduce
the illegal drug trade.This initiative includes a set of drug
policies of the United States that are intended to discourage
the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal
psychoactive drugs. The term "War on Drugs" was first used
by President Richard Nixon in 1971
Although Nixon coined the term "War on Drugs" when he first
used it in 1971, the policies that his administration
implemented as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse
Prevention and Control Act of 1970 were a continuation of
drug prohibition policies in the U.S., which started in 1914.
As early as 1982, Vice President George H. W. Bush and his
aides began pushing for the involvement of the CIA and U.S.
military in drug interdiction efforts.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was
originally established by the National Narcotics Leadership
Act of 1988,which mandated a national anti-drug media
campaign for youth, which would later become the National
Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The director of ONDCP is
commonly known as the Drug czar, and it was first
implemented in 1989 under President George H. W. Bush, and
raised to cabinet-level status by Bill Clinton in 1993.
These activities subsequently funded by the Treasury and
General Government Appropriations Act of 1998 formally
creating the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The
Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 codified the
campaign.
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Today
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"The War On Drugs Has Failed", said a self-appointed 19member commission on June 2, 2011, including former Uited
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Mexico's former
President Ernesto Zedillo, Brazil's ex-President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso and former Colombian President Cesar
Gaviria, as well as the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman
Paul Volcker and the current Prime Minister of Greece,
George Papandreou.
The panel also featured prominent Latin American writers
Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa, the EU's former
foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and George Schultz, a
former U.S. Secretary of State. Rafael Lemaitre, ONDCP
Communications Director, issued a response the same day
stating that President Obama's policy on drugs is a marked
departure from previous approaches to drug policy.
U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin also released the first
ever National Prevention Strategy. Two weeks later, former
President Jimmy Carter wrote an op-ed in The New York
Times explicitly endorsing the commission's initiative.
The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion in 2010 on
the War on Drugs, a rate of about $500 per second
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Current Plans
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Merida Initiative
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The Mérida Initiative is a security cooperation approved on
June 30, 2008, between the United States and the government
of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of
combating the threats of drug trafficking and transnational
crime. The Mérida Initiative appropriated $1.4 billion in a three
year commitment (2008–2010) to the Mexican government for
military and law enforcement training and equipment, as well
as technical advice and training to strengthen the national
justice systems. No weapons are included in the plan
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Los Zetas
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Outrage
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A 2008 study by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron has
estimated that legalizing drugs would inject $76.8 billion a
year into the U.S. economy — $44.1 billion from law
enforcement savings, and at least $32.7 billion in tax revenue
($6.7 billion from marijuana, $22.5 billion from cocaine and
heroin, remainder from other drugs).
Low taxation in Central American countries has been credited
with weakening the region's response in dealing with drug
traffickers. Many cartels, especially Los Zetas have taken
advantage of the limited resources of these nations.
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the second most powerful drug cartel in Mexico and
considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as
the most violent drug cartel and paramilitary enforcement
group in Mexico.
Los Zetas is a criminal organization dedicated mostly to
international illegal drug trade, assassinations, extortion,
kidnapping and other organized crime activities. This drug
cartel, now led by Heriberto Lazcano, was founded by a group
of over 30 former Mexican Army Special Forces deserters and
includes corrupt former federal, state, and local police officers,
as well as ex-Kaibiles from Guatemala.
Los Zetas started as the military wing and private mercenary
army of the Gulf Cartel, but after the arrest of the Gulf Cartel's
leader, Osiel Cárdenas Guillen, the two entities became a
combined trafficking force, with the Zetas taking a more
active leadership role in drug trafficking.
In 2010, however, Los Zetas began to operate independently
from the Gulf Cartel structure.
The rupture of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel has led to a
bloody turf war, predominantly in the states of Nuevo Leon
and Tamaulipas.
They have also carried out multiple massacres and terrorist
attacks on civilians, such as the 2011 Monterrey casino attack,
where 52 people were killed, the 2010 Tamaulipas massacre,
where 72 migrants were found dead, the 2011 Tamaulipas
massacre, where 193 people were killed, the massacre of 27
farmers in Guatemala, and the 2008 Morelia grenade attacks,
where 8 were killed and over 100 were injured.
In addition, sources reveal that Los Zetas may also be
responsible for the death of 249 people at the 2011 Durango
massacres and for the 2010 Puebla oil pipeline explosion,
which killed 28 people, injured 52, and damaged over 115
homes
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The United States–Mexico border is the international border
between the United States and Mexico.
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It runs from Imperial Beach, California, and Tijuana, Baja California,
in the west to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, in
the east, and traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from major
urban areas to inhospitable deserts.
From the Gulf of Mexico it follows the course of the Rio Grande (Río
Bravo del Norte) to the border crossing at El Paso, Texas, and
Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; westward from that binational
conurbation it crosses vast tracts of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan
Desert, the Colorado River Delta, westward to the binational
conurbation of San Diego and Tijuana before reaching the Pacific
Ocean. The US-Mexican border is considered an open border.
The U.S.–Mexico border has the second highest number of both
legal and illegal crossings of any land border in the world, behind
the Canada – United States border. The border is guarded by more
than twenty thousand border patrol agents, more than any time in
its history.
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However they only have "effective control" of less than 700 miles
(1,100 km) of the 1,954 miles (3,145 km) of total border, with an
ability to actually prevent or stop illegal entries along 129 miles
(208 km) of that border. The border is paralleled by United States
Border Patrol Interior Checkpoints at major roads generally between
25 and 75 miles (121 km) to the U.S. side of the border, and garitas
generally within 50 km of the border on the Mexican side.
There are an estimated half a million illegal entries into the United
States each year. Border Patrol activity is concentrated around big
border cities such as San Diego and El Paso which do have extensive
border fencing. This means that the flow of illegal immigrants is
diverted into rural mountainous and desert areas, leading to several
hundred migrant deaths along the Mexico-U.S. border of those
attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico without
authorization from the Federal government of the United States.
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Each state in the United States has a National Guard organization
that could, in principle, be placed on the border at a state
governor's discretion to assist with border security; many states
also have a backup to the National Guard called the State Defense
Force that could, in an emergency, also be activated for this
purpose. However, few governors have done this. Many governors
fear a backlash from local businesses and ever increasing
communities of Latinos. Arizona and New Mexico have currently
declared the counties that border Mexico to be under serious duress
caused by uncontrolled illegal migration, thereby enabling
governors to deploy National Guardsmen to the international
border.
However, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) has opposed some
measures intended to reduce illegal immigration through
enforcement and proposed a bill calling for earned legalization
(which many call amnesty) in the Senate.
Texas governor Rick Perry has called for the deployment of national
guardsmen to watch certain high-traffic spots of the Texas/Mexico
border, partly as a response to an incident in 2006 where U.S.
officers involved in a pursuit in western Texas lost suspected drug
smugglers when their 4x4 vehicle crossed the Rio Grande and was
met by several men armed with assault rifles and dressed in
Mexican military uniforms.
In May 2006, President Bush announced a plan whereby up to 6,000
National Guardsmen would help build facilities on the border to
assist the Border Patrol with tactical and technical measures but
not enforcement duties.
There has been some resistance: in California, Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger initially denied Bush's request to deploy 3,000
National Guard troops to the California-Baja California border.[Later
Schwarzenegger changed his mind after being reassured of
reimbursement and replacement if they are needed elsewhere and
deployed over 1600 California National Guard troops to the border.
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Attempts to complete the construction of the United States–
Mexico barrier have been challenged by the Mexican government,
illegal immigrants living in the United States, and various U.S.based Chicano organizations. According to proponents of open
border policies, agricultural work is one of the many types of work
that illegal immigrants fill that could not be easily filled by United
States citizens. Opponents counter that U.S. citizens would gladly
take these jobs if offered decent wages.
In December 2005, the United States House of Representatives
voted to build a separation barrier along parts of the border. A
companion vote in the United States Senate on May 17, 2006
included a plan to blockade 860 miles (1,380 km) of the border with
vehicle barriers and triple-layer fencing.
Although those bills died in committee, eventually the Secure
Fence Act of 2006 was passed providing for the construction of 700
miles (1,100 km) of high-security fencing. Proponents hope that
barriers of various types running the length of the border will
reduce illegal drug smuggling and illegal immigration drastically.
According to Dr. Douglas Massey of Princeton University and other
experts the efforts to curtail illegal immigration by means of
security has done nothing but redirect the migration flows into the
most desolate and desert areas of the border, thus increasing the
mortality rate of illegal immigrants. Instead, they remain in the
U.S. for longer periods of time and eventually bring their families
with them.
President Bush has presented an initiative to reinstate a Guest
worker program or expand the H-2B program to fill the perceived
needs of labor for some areas of the U.S. and, at the same time,
has pushed to strengthen the security measures at the border to
stop suspected illegal immigrants, terrorists, and narcotics dealers
from entering the U.S.
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Enforcement
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71% of respondents in a 2006 Quinnipiac University Poll
believed that enforcement of immigration laws will require
additional measures beyond a border fence, with 65% of
respondents supporting employer fines. 77% of respondents
to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll support employer
fines.
A later NBC/Wall Street Journal poll indicates 57% strongly
favor employer fines and 17% somewhat favor them, while
44% strongly favor increased border security and 19%
strongly oppose.
The Manhattan Institute reported that 78% of likely
Republican voters favor a proposal combining increased
border security, tougher penalties for employers who hire
illegal workers, and allowing illegal aliens to register for a
temporary worker program that includes a path to citizenship.
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Respondents favored the program over a deportation and
enforcement-only plan 58% to 33%.The Quinnipiac poll reports
that 65% of adults support a guest worker program for illegal
immigrants.
Following the passage of Arizona's Support Our Law
Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act n April, 2010,
which authorizes police officials to question persons on their
immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that they
are illegally in the country or committing other violations not
related to their immigration status, numerous polls showed
widespread support for the law.
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A Rasmussen poll found that 60% of the electorate support
such a law while 31% are opposed to such a law.
A New York Times poll showed similar results: 51% of
Americans felt the law was "about right" in its dealings with
illegal immigration, 9% felt that its measures did not go far
enough to address the problem while 36% have negative
opinions regarding such a law.
Arizona Border
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Response of government
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An ABC News Poll, indicates that most respondents (67%)
believe the United States is not doing enough to keep illegal
immigrants from coming into the country and, according to a
CBS News/New York Times poll most Americans believe that
US immigration policy needs either fundamental changes
(41%) or to be completely rebuilt (49%).
In an opinion poll by Zogby International in 2005, voters were
also asked, "Do you support or oppose the Bush
administration's proposal to give millions of illegal aliens guest
worker status and the opportunity to become citizens?"
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35% gave their support; 56 percent disagreed. The same poll
noted a huge majority, 81%, believes local and state police
should help federal authorities enforce laws against illegal
immigration.
Federal response
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In choosing a presidential candidate, most respondents to a
Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll consider his or her stand on
illegal immigration to be either an important (66%) or the
most important (15%) issue, while a clear minority consider it
to be either not too important (16%) or not important at all
(2%).
Most respondents (51%) would be upset if Congress does not
pass an immigration bill while significantly fewer (22%) would
be pleased.
A Chicago Tribune Super Tuesday exit poll shows that "Experts
following the immigration debate claim Republicans had
hoped illegal immigration would become a wedge issue
between the two parties in the 2008 presidential election." The
report adds, "Voters across the country overwhelmingly and
consistently have named the economy as their number one
issue, in exit poll data from Super Tuesday and subsequent
primaries..."
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The White House
Immigration - Guiding Principles
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Strengthen Border Control
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"President Obama believes that our broken
immigration system can only be fixed by putting
politics aside and offering a complete solution
that secures our border, enforces our laws, and
reaffirms our heritage as a nation of immigrants.
He believes our immigration policy should be
driven by our best judgment of what is in the
economic interest of the United States and what
is in the best interest of the American worker.
"President Obama recognizes that an orderly,
controlled border and an immigration system
designed to meet our economic needs are
important pillars of a healthy and robust
economy.
"President Obama will protect the integrity of
our borders by investing in additional personnel,
infrastructure, and technology on the border
and at our ports of entry.
Improve Our Immigration System
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"President Obama will fix the dysfunctional
immigration bureaucracy and enable legal
immigration so that families can stay together.
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Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally
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Bring People Out of the Shadows
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"President Obama will remove incentives to
enter the country illegally by preventing
employers from hiring undocumented workers
and enforcing the law.
"President Obama supports a system that allows
undocumented immigrants who are in good
standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to
the back of the line for the opportunity to
become citizens.
Work with Mexico
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"President Obama will promote economic
development in Mexico to decrease the
economic desperation that leads to illegal
immigration."
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Economics
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The United States and Mexico have close economic ties. The US is
Mexico's largest trading partner, accounting for close to half of all
exports in 2008 and more than half of all imports in 2009. For the
U.S., Mexico is the third largest trading partner after Canada and
China as of June 2010.
The two countries and Canada have signed the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 with the goal of eliminating
barriers to trade and investment. Foreign direct investment (FDI)
into Mexico has risen dramatically since NAFTA went into effect and
in 2008, 41% of all FDI came from U.S. sources. Roughly half of this
investment goes to manufacturing. One U.S. company, Wal-Mart, is
the largest private sector employer in Mexico.
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Globalization
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Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of people and
places as a result of advances in transport, communication, and
information technologies that causes political, economical, and
cultural convergence. Latin America has emerged from the economic
doldrums of the 1970s and 1980s to become a commercial power of
its own right in the 1990s. Seeds were planted in the 1980s with the
movements towards democracy and free market economies. Mexico
has become a member of NAFTA, Mercosur, born in 1988, achieved
full internal free trade among member-states Brazil, Argentina,
Paraguay and Uruguay by its 1994 deadline.
Positive
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The border between Mexico and the United States spans four U.S. states, six
Mexican states, and has over twenty commercial crossings.
In contrast to the accepted wisdom of the 1970s and 1980s, international firms
in the 1990s see Latin America as a springboard into America. Companies such
as Honda and Mercedes have built new plants or upgraded existing ones in
Mexico to reap the advantages of the free trade that the NAFTA agreement
promised. The surge of consumption south of the American border has also
sparked the interest of both American and international retailers. After an
extensive study of Mexican consumers in its 22 stores on the U.S.-Mexico
border, J.C. Penney announced plans to open 20 stores in Mexico and Chile,
where the Home Depot briefly had 12 stores in the early 2000s. Wal-Mart
followed its initial push into Mexico, Canada and Puerto Rico with aggressive
moves into Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Corona is the number one imported beer
in America by volume with a 29% share of the beer market.
Negative
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While it can be argued that the effects of economic liberalization over three
decades have been largely positive, concerns are rising in capitals throughout
the world that accelerating change is carrying an increasingly high price in terms
of unemployment, social dislocation, income disparities, the exploitation of
workers and environmental degradation. This can be seen specifically in cases of
the maquiladora factories on the U.S.-Mexico border. Cases of exploitative
labor, low wages, long hours, and sexual misconduct are evident.