A brief history of the US–Mexico border
Part I
Last week, we received news that once again Texas state officials were separating migrant families at the US–Mexico border. While police officers detained fathers on “trespassing charges,” they turned over “mothers and children to federal officials.” Among the many cruelties of the Trump administration, the family separation policy was one of the worst. I still have some of the drawings children made of their time in detention centers burned into my mind’s retina.
Trump’s obsession with the border was for me equal parts fascinating and infuriating. His now infamous characterization of Mexicans as criminals and rapists brilliantly situated the US as a virginal woman needing to be protected from a rapacious Brown “Other.” In this formulation, the MAGA movement became patriots rising to the defense of a country otherwise powerless to defend itself from this impending onslaught. The various attempts to “secure” the border with fencing, shipping containers, and buoys are almost comical in their ineptitude, like a medieval king hastily constructing a barrier to protect his daughter from the barbarian hordes. Of the many critiques that could be levied against the attitude of the US toward its southern neighbors, I think these two are most important: the historically accidental nature of the US–Mexico border and the heavily interventionist foreign policy of the US throughout Latin America.
I remember learning in school about the Louisiana Purchase, that great land grab of 1803, whereby the US acquired 828,000 mi.2 from a heavily indebted France. I even remember learning about the second largest territorial acquisition in US history, the Alaska Purchase, and how some described as “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox” after Secretary of State William Seward and the belief that this land was essentially useless. I don’t remember learning about the next largest: the Mexican Cession, though. Of all the European powers, Spain was perhaps the most successful at establishing an empire in the “New World,” stretching from Tierra del Fuego at the tip of the South American continent to present-day Canada. The Mexican War of Independence, however, led to the birth of a new nation encompassing much of what we now know of as Mexico, in addition to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, as well as the entireties of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Of course, Mexico wasn’t the only ambitious state in North America. In 1844, US voters elected James Polk as president on an expansionist platform. A reigning ideology of time was “Manifest Destiny,” or the belief that US settlers were fated to expand westward across the continent due to their special virtues. A key step of this plan was the annexation of Texas, which had declared its own independence from Mexico in 1836. The majority of the Texan population was Anglo and supported joining the US. But back in Washington, both major political parties opposed the annexation of Texas, which would upset the delicate balance between slave and free states and would risk war. Indeed, Mexico had not only outlawed slavery, but also refused to recognize the Treaties of Velasco that established Texan independence, which it believed was signed under duress. The election of Polk signaled the changing winds, and ultimately prompted his lame-duck predecessor John Tyler to move the annexation treaty forward.
As expected, the admission of Texas as the 28th state led to the rapid deterioration of US–Mexico relations, which in turn resulted in the outbreak of the Mexican–American War a few months later. The most immediate cause of the war was a disagreement over the borders of Texas, which the US held was at the Rio Grande River and which Mexico held was at the Nueces River. Attempting to resolve the dispute, Polk offered to buy the disputed territory, as well as California and everything between the two. When the Mexican government refused, Polk sent soldiers into the disputed territory, provoking a Mexican counterattack, which Polk in turn used to convince Congress to declare war.
A relatively quick affair, US forces captured Santa Fe and moved against Alta California (all of what is now California, Nevada, and Utah, and some of Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming), as the US Navy blockaded Baja California, cutting off access to the Pacific Ocean. By September 1847, the US Army had captured the capital: Mexico City. Despite their defeat, some Mexicans refused to acknowledge any loss of territory. The US was represented by diplomat Nicholas Trist, who was authorized to offer varying amounts of restitution determined by how much Mexican territory he could acquire.
Despite these instructions, Polk was so unhappy with Trist that he recalled him to the US, an order Trist ignored. And on February 2, 1848, Trist successfully negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, whereby Mexico relinquished its claim to Texas and accepted the Rio Grande as its northern border, representing a loss over half of its territory. Nevertheless, Polk and his fellow expansionists were furious that Trist had drawn the border directly west from Yuma to San Diego/Tijuana rather than south to the Gulf of California, which would have made Baja California part of the US. Ultimately, however, Polk accede to the terms of the Treaty, wanting to chalk it up as a win for his administration. Upon his return stateside, Trist was prompted fired for insubordination and made responsible for any expenses incurred after his recall. He would later reflect on the Treaty, “My feeling of shame as an American was far stronger than the Mexicans’ could be.”