With all the yammering these days about illegal Latino immigrants, threats of high crimes, a “beautiful” wall, and the treatment of children, let’s remember that the Rio Grande river has always been a porous border. It took ten years and a war for Mexico to agree on that river as the border. And it wasn’t observed all that well.
In the nineteenth century a group of Texas Rangers tried to stop Mexicans from crossing the river to raid ranches. The Rangers made their own law and eventually crossed the river in hot pursuit of rustlers. The Mexican government objected, of course.
During the 1900s the revolution in Mexico spilled across the river into South Texas. The Plan of San Diego threatened to reclaim south Texas for Mexico. Bandits raided as far north as the Laureles ranch. Were they bandits? Their descendants claim they were revolutionaries.
During WWII the Bracero program brought Mexican labor to the US. It was unpopular for all involved. The Braceros didn’t speak English. They were poorly paid; many of them skipped away for better jobs or returned to Mexico (“self-deportation”).
In the middle 1950s we began Operation Wetback. The Border Patrol began at the river and swept northward, arresting illegals with the aid of local, state and national agencies. Illegals were returned to the interior of Mexico on trains or buses. Shiploads of illegals were taken to Veracruz or other remote ports.
We seem to have maintained a steady population of some 10,000 – 15,000 illegals from Mexico or further south. Are they vicious murders, rapists, drug dealers, responsible for losses of jobs here in the US? Or are they gentle people looking for a better life and willing to undertake jobs that nobody here wants to do?
Or both?
Dac Crossley
May 28, 2013
“The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you’ll grow out of it. Middle age is youth without levity, and age without decay.” – Doris Day.