Fake Problems With Faulty Solutions Why a Physical Barrier Is Not a Viable Answer to Trump's Purported "crisis" at the Border

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Publication year: 2020
• Citation: Vol. 2 No. 1

Heather Adamick^*

Abstract: The border between the United States and Mexico has evolved significantly throughout this country's history. It has long been a source of contention and has become the focal point of Donald Trump's presidency. Through the use of antagonizing rhetoric, Trump has created a new wave of nationalism—convincing his supporters that undocumented immigrants are a threat to the American people and claiming that a newly constructed wall along the border is the only way to eliminate that threat. This article explores the history of the border wall and seeks to demonstrate that a wall is an unnecessary expense that will not solve the problem Trump insists exists.

Introduction

"Build that wall, build that wall!"¹ It is the political slogan that set the tone for Donald Trump's polarizing and unpredictable 2016 presidential campaign. A campaign promise that has turned into one of the most divisive subjects in politics today.

The United States is often referred to as a "nation of immigrants." Although the United States started out as a welcoming, immigrant-friendly nation, the country's history has been tainted with policies of exclusion and nationalist sentiments. These sentiments have substantially increased in the past few years under Donald Trump's presidency and do not appear to be subsiding any time soon. Trump's proposal for a border wall is just one of the many actions he has taken as president in an effort to maintain the admiration of his supporters through the promotion of these exclusionist policies.

Although Trump assured his supporters from the beginning of his campaign that the construction of the border wall was one of his main priorities, none of these plans has come to fruition until recently. Although efforts made by Trump's administration and supporters pushing for the construction of the wall have been persistent, as well as quite shocking, organized efforts opposing the Trump administration's agenda have had some success in combatting these nativist movements.

This paper attempts to discern the "why" behind the sudden outcry for a reinforced wall at the border by diving into the development of the U.S.Mexico border in the past century. The paper will then analyze the Trump administration's reasoning behind the need for a border wall and will demonstrate why those reasons are invalid. Lastly, the paper will present two potential problems the Trump administration has and will continue to encounter in its attempt to erect a wall along the border.

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History of the Border with Mexico

Spanish Rule and Mexican Independence

Prior to Mexico's independence from Spain, the United States' southern border was defined by the Adams-Oni's Treaty.² Signed by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in 1819, the treaty transferred Florida and the Gulf lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States and defined the existing border between the two countries as beginning at the mouth of the Sabine River in the southeast, and stretching up to the northwest to what is now known as Oregon. In exchange for these concessions, the United States recognized Spain's control over Texas.³

Following Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, the United States made several attempts to purchase Texas. Mexico refuted all of these offers, but recognized the need for colonization, as the Mexican population on these borderlands was sparse and the Native Americans vastly outnumbered them.⁴ To address this issue, Mexico allowed American families to settle in Texas, as long as they agreed to convert to Catholicism, learn to speak Spanish, and take Mexican citizenship.⁵ As a result, hundreds of American families made the trek to settle in Texas.

Texas Revolution and Texas Annexation

By 1830, the Anglo-American population grew to 16,000. With so many Anglos migrating to the Texas territory, tensions began to rise between the native Mexicans and the American colonists. Anglo-Americans refused to abide by the rules set forth by the Mexican government—they did not learn Spanish, they segregated their children into their own schools, and they conducted the majority of their trade with the United States. Mexican authorities began to fear that a revolution was imminent and imposed a series of laws reasserting Mexico's prohibition of slavery, forbidding further immigration from the United States, and restricting trade with the United States.⁶

Despite these new restrictive laws, the American colonists had hope that the newly elected president of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, would allow Texas to be a self-governing state. However, two years into his presidency tensions culminated when Santa Anna declared himself a dictator and abolished all state governments, leading colonists and Mexican liberals to draft their own Constitution and create a temporary government.⁷

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Out of this newly formed government came the Texas Revolution. Although the revolution lasted less than a year, it was filled with several important battles and led to the capture of Santa Anna by Texan troops. The revolution came to an end with the Treaties of Velasco, requiring all Mexican troops to retreat south of the Rio Grande river, restoring all private property that had been confiscated by Mexicans, and returning all prisoners of war. Santa Anna also negotiated his release through the signing of a secret treaty, in which he recognized Texas as an independent republic and agreed that the Texas-Mexico border would be the Rio Grande river.⁸ The Republic of Texas was an independent sovereign state for nearly 10 years before being annexed as the twenty-eighth state of the United States in 1845.⁹

Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase

Along with the annexation of Texas came strained relations between the United States and Mexico. The tension arose from a disagreement over the designated border between the new state and Mexico. Mexico believed the border extended to the Nueces River, and Texans argued that the border began at the Rio Grande. In 1846, President Polk attempted to purchase Mexican territory that is now known as California and New Mexico, but his offer was quickly rejected.¹⁰ In response to this rejection, Polk moved troops into the disputed territory between the Rio Grande and Nueces rivers. Mexican forces attacked the troops in this disputed zone, causing the United States to declare war against Mexico.

The Mexican-American War lasted two years and drastically altered the territorial composition of both the United States and Mexico. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico recognized the annexation of Texas, established the Rio Grande as the border, and agreed to sell all territory north of the Rio Grande to the United States for $15 million. The treaty resulted in the loss of nearly one million square miles of land for Mexico.¹¹

In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase was made—establishing the U.S.-Mexico border as we know it today. The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico handed the United States over 29,000 square miles of territory—including what eventually became parts of Arizona and New Mexico.¹²

Although these treaties clearly defined the border on maps, the clarity did not translate to the border on the ground. Many of the markers that had been placed along the border had been destroyed. In response to the ambiguity of the border, Mexican and American governments created a joint commission to reassess the situation at the border. Upon the recommendation of the commission, the United States ordered a 60-foot grass path to be installed along the border at Nogales in 1897, which was later extended to other parts of the border.¹³

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Mexican Revolution and World War I

Although the border was well-established, both on maps and on the ground, at the turn of the twentieth century, there was no infrastructure to monitor illegal border crossings. As violence and turmoil began to explode along the border due to the Mexican Revolution, swarms of people began to spill over into Texas. During the revolution, between the years 1910 and 1920, more than 890,000 Mexicans migrated to the United States.¹⁴

The revolution brought never-before-seen violence and disorder to the border. This increased violence, coupled with the United States' entry into World War I in 1917, instilled a fear in Americans that violence and foreign World War I spies could spill over the border as well. It was the fear derived from these two events that caused the first physical barrier to be built—a six-foot wooden fence along the border of Nogales.¹⁵ Fences similar to these began popping up along other parts of the border, particularly at ports of entry.

Shortly after these wars were over, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, establishing the Border Patrol and imposing strict national origins quotas—capping immigration visas to 2 percent of each nationality in the United States as of 1890.¹⁶ Interestingly, Mexico was excluded from these quotas as a result of extensive lobbying on the part of Texas farmers, who viewed Mexican labor as essential to their economic survival.¹⁷

World War II and the Bracero Program

As working-class American men left in swarms to fight in the World War II, the United States found itself with an extreme shortage of labor. To fill this void, the United States and Mexico formed the Bracero Program in 1942.¹⁸ The program sent nearly five million Mexicans to the United States to work on short-term, primarily agricultural labor contracts.

Although the program was represented as being mutually beneficial, opponents of the program existed in both nations. U.S. labor unions argued that a labor shortage did not exist at all so an influx of Mexican workers was unwarranted.¹⁹ Mexican laborers were concerned with violations of the agreement. Although the braceros were guaranteed free sanitary housing, access to medical care, paid round-trip transportation, pay of at least the prevailing wage, and protection from...