A friend pointed me to an interesting article about immigration from Mexico, especially into the American Southwest.
In essence, it argues that this is not some internal U.S. law-enforcement issue that can be resolved by intensive policing, like Arizona’s controversial recent effort.
Instead, our Southwest is typical of borderlands throughout the world, and the current controversies are part of a long and contentious relationship between the United States and Mexico — one that started with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, twenty years before Mexico became an independent country.
The two nations fought a war in 1846-48, followed by the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, to establish a political boundary, but cultural and economic boundaries shift over time, even if the political boundary remains fixed. Immigration is just one of many issues.
If you share my pleasure in history mixed with geopolitics, read it here.
Ed Quillen is a freelance writer in Salida, Colo.
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