United States–Mexico border: Encyclopedia - United States–Mexico border

United States–Mexico border

The international border between Mexico and the United States runs from San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Baja California, in the west to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, in the east. It traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from major urban areas to inhospitable deserts. From the border crossing at El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to the east, it follows the course of the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) to the Gulf of Mexico; from the same binational conurbation westward to the Pacific Ocean, it crosses vast tracts of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts, the Colorado River Delta, and the northernmost tip of the Baja California Peninsula.

The border's total length is 3,141 km (1,951 miles), according to figures given by the IBWC.[1] It is the most frequently crossed international border in the world, with some 350 million people crossing legally from one country to the other every year.[2]

United States–Mexico border - Geography

The international border between the United States and Mexico extends over 3,141 km (1,952 miles). The boundary follows the middle of the Rio Grande — according to the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the two nations, "along the deepest channel" — from its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico a distance of 2,019 km (1,254 miles) to a point just upstream of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. It then follows an alignment westward overland and marked by monuments a distance of 858 km (533 miles) to the Colorado River. Thence it follows the middle of that river northward a distance of 38 km (24 miles), and then it again follows an alignment westward overland and marked by monuments a distance of 226 km (141 miles) to the Pacific Ocean. The region along the boundary is characterized by deserts, rugged mountains, abundant sunshine and by two major rivers — the Colorado River and the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) — which provide life-giving waters to the largely arid but fertile lands along the rivers in both countries.

Texas has the longest stretch of the border of any state, while Nuevo León has the shortest (12 km).

The total population of the borderlands — defined as those counties and municipios lining the border on either side — stands at some 12 million people.

From west to east, the border city twinnings and border crossings include the following:

• San Ysidro, California – Tijuana, Baja California
• Calexico, California – Mexicali, Baja California
• San Luis, Arizona – San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora
• Lukeville, Arizona – Sonoita, Sonora
• Nogales, Arizona – Nogales, Sonora
• Douglas, Arizona – Agua Prieta, Sonora
• El Paso, Texas – Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
• Presidio, Texas – Ojinaga, Chihuahua
• Del Rio, Texas – Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila
• Eagle Pass, Texas – Piedras Negras, Coahuila
• Laredo, Texas – Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
• McAllen, Texas – Reynosa, Tamaulipas
• Brownsville, Texas – Matamoros, Tamaulipas

United States–Mexico border - History

With the exception of a small number of minor Rio Grande border disputes, since settled, the current course of the border was finalized by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase. Whether the border between Mexico and the breakaway Republic of Texas followed the Rio Grande or the Nueces River further north was an issue never settled during the existence of that Republic, and the uncertainty was one of the direct causes of the 1846–48 Mexican-American War. An earlier agreement, signed during the Mexican War of Independence by the USA and Imperial Spain, was the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty, which defined the border between the young republic and the dwindling colonial empire following the Louisiana Purchase of 1804.

For a detailed history of water-related agreements along the border since the signing of the 1848 Treaty, see International Boundary and Water Commission.

United States–Mexico border - Migration issues

The U.S.–Mexico border is the world's land border with the highest number of legal and illegal crossings. Besides the closeness of the two countries, differences in living standards on the two sides of border is the primary driving force behind these migratory flows. The U.S. Border Patrol is too underfinanced and understaffed to effectively fight illegal immigration (with an average of four agents per mile of the border), and the Mexican government, receiving tens of billons of dollars each year in expatriate remittances, stops one step short from actually encouraging emigration. [3] As a result, a large percentage of the border is left virtually unguarded, except by a small number of patrolling agents of the U.S. federal government.

It is estimated that over a million people cross the border illegally each year, most of whom are of Mexican origin. The rest are labeled "Other Than Mexicans" (OTM), of whom a majority are Central Americans. Border Patrol activity is concentrated around big border cities such as San Diego and El Paso. This means that the flow of illegal immigrants is diverted into rural mountainous and desert areas, leading to a significant number of deaths. Attempts to complete the construction of the United States Mexico barrier have faced stiff opposition from the Mexican government, various U.S.-based Chicano organizations, environmental organizations, and agricultural companies. About 45% of all agricultural laborers in the United States are illegal aliens, according to migration experts at the University of California, Davis.

In December, 2005, the U.S. House of Representitives voted for to build a separation barrier along parts of the border. A companion vote is scheduled for February, 2006, in the Senate. Proponents hope that the barrier will stem the flood of illegal immigration into the United States.

According to Dr. Douglass Massey ( Smoke and Mirrors: U.S. Immigration Policy in the Age of Globalization, Russel Sage, 2001) 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 desertic areas of the border, thus increasing the mortality rate of illegal immigrants. Furthermore, the security measures prevent the migrants re-entering Mexico, as they had done in the past. Instead, they remain in the U.S. for longer periods of time and eventually bring their families with them. President Bush, taking into account these findings, has presented an initiative to reinstate a Guest Worker Program to fill the needs of labor of the burgeoning American economy and, at the same time, has pushed to strengthen the security measures at the border to stop suspected terrorists and narcotics dealers from entering the U.S.

See also

• Immigrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border
• United States Mexico barrier
• United States Border Patrol
• Rio Grande border disputes
• Border blaster
• New River (California)
• Border Field State Park

United States–Mexico border - Sources

Categories: Borders | Geography of the United States | Geography of Mexico | Mexico and the United States

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "United States–Mexico border", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki