United States–Mexico border

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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 Sonora and Chihuahua 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]

Contents

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, — which provide life-giving waters to the largely arid but fertile lands along the rivers in both countries.

Image:US-Mexico-Nogales-Border.jpg
The U.S. states along the border, from west to east, are
California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
The Mexican states are
Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.

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:

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.

Border and Water Treaties

The Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of 2 February 1848 fixed the international boundary between El Paso – Ciudad Juárez and the Gulf of Mexico. The Gadsden Purchase Treaty of 30 December 1853 extended the southern boundary of New Mexico and Arizona southwards to enable the United States to construct a railroad to the west coast along a southern route and to resolve a question arising from the 1848 Treaty as to the location of the southern boundary of New Mexico. Temporary commissions were formed by these boundary treaties to perform the first joint mission of the governments of the United States and Mexico, which was to survey and demarcate the boundary on the ground in accordance with the treaties. Another temporary commission was created by the 1852 Boundary Convention (29 July), which surveyed and increased the number of monuments marking the land boundary westward from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. As settlements sprang up along the boundary rivers and the adjoining lands began to be developed for agriculture in the late 19th century, questions arose as to the location of the boundary when the rivers changed their course and transferred tracts of land from one side of the river to the other. The two governments, by the 1884 Border Convention (12 November) adopted certain rules designated to deal with such questions.

By the 1889 Border Convention (1 March), the two governments created the International Boundary Commission (IBC), to consist of a United States Section and a Mexican Section. The IBC was charged with the application of the rules of the 1884 Convention, for the settlement of questions arising as to the location of the boundary when the rivers changed their course. That Convention was modified by the Banco Convention of 20 March 1905 to retain the Rio Grande and the Colorado River as the boundary.

The 1906 Border Convention (21 May) provided for the distribution between the United States and Mexico of the waters of the Rio Grande above Fort Quitman, Texas, for the 143-km (89 mile) international boundary reach of the Rio Grande through the El Paso–Juárez Valley. This Convention allotted to Mexico 60,000 acre-feet* annually of the waters of the Rio Grande to be delivered in accordance with a monthly schedule at the headgate to Mexico's Acequia Madre just above Ciudad Juárez. To facilitate such deliveries, the United States constructed, at its expense, the Elephant Butte Dam in its territory. The Convention includes the proviso that in case of extraordinary drought or serious accident to the irrigation system in the United States, the amount of water delivered to the Mexican Canal shall be diminished in the same proportion as the water delivered to lands under the irrigation system in the United States downstream of Elephant Butte Dam.

In the 1933 Border Convention (1 February), the two governments agreed to jointly construct, operate and maintain, through the IBC, the Rio Grande Rectification Project, which straightened and stabilized the 249-km (155 mile) river boundary through the highly developed El Paso–Juárez Valley. The project further provided for the control of the river's floods through this Valley.

The Treaty for the Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande of 3 February 1944 distributed between the two countries the waters of the Rio Grande from Fort Quitman to the Gulf of Mexico, and the waters of the Colorado River. Of the waters of the Rio Grande, the Treaty allocates to Mexico:

  1. All of the waters reaching the main channel of the Rio Grande from the San Juan and Alamo Rivers, including the return flows from the lands irrigated from those two rivers.
  2. Two-thirds of the flow in the main channel of the Rio Grande from the measured Conchos, San Diego, San Rodrigo, Escondido and Salado Rivers, and the Las Vacas Arroyo, subject to certain provisions
  3. One-half of all other flows occurring in the main channel of the Rio Grande downstream from Fort Quitman.

The Treaty allots to the United States:

  1. All of the waters reaching the main channel of the Rio Grande from the Pecos and Devils Rivers, Goodenough Spring and Alamito, Terlingua, San Felipe and Pinto Creeks.
  2. One-third of the flow reaching the main channel of the river from the six named measured tributaries from Mexico and provides that this third shall not be less, as an average amount in cycles of five consecutive years, than 350,000 acre-feet annually
  3. One-half of all other flows occurring in the main channel of the Rio Grande downstream from Fort Quitman.

The 1944 Treaty further provided for the two Governments to jointly construct, operate and maintain on the main channel of the Rio Grande the dams required for the conservation, storage and regulation of the greatest quantity of the annual flow of the river to enable each country to make optimum use of its allotted waters. The 1944 Treaty also provides that of the waters of the Colorado River, Mexico is to receive:

  1. A guaranteed annual quantity of 1.5 million acre-feet to be delivered in accordance with schedules formulated in advance by Mexico within specified limitations.
  2. Any other waters arriving at the Mexican points of diversion under certain understandings.

To enable diversion of Mexico's allotted waters, the Treaty provided for the construction by Mexico of a main diversion structure in the Colorado River, below the point where the California–Baja California land boundary line intersects the river. It also provided for the construction at Mexico's expense of such works as may be needed in the United States to protect its lands from such floods and seepage as might result from the construction and operation of the diversion structure.

In the 1944 Treaty the two Governments agreed to give preferential attention to the solution of all border sanitation problems. This Treaty entrusts the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) (the renamed International Boundary Commission of the 1889 Convention) with the application of its terms, the regulation and exercise of the rights and obligations which the two governments assumed therunder, and the settlement of all disputes to which its observance and execution may give rise. The Treaty also provides that the IBWC study, investigate and report to the Governments on such hydroelectric facilities as the IBWC finds should be built at the international storage dams and on such flood control works, other than those specified in the Treaty, that the IBWC finds should be built on the boundary rivers, the estimated cost thereof, the part to be built by each government, and to be operated and maintained by each through its Section of the IBWC.

Under the terms of the 1944 Treaty: the two Governments reached agreement for the solution of the international problem of the salinity of the Lower Colorado River (30 August 1973), and the IBWC submitted and the two Governments approved "Recommendations for the Solution of the Border Sanitation Problems" (24 September 1979).

The Chamizal Convention of 29 August 1963 resolved the nearly 100-year-old boundary problem at El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Known as the Chamizal Dispute, this involved some 243 hectares (600 acres) of territory which were transferred from the south to the north bank of the Rio Grande by movement of the river during the latter part of the 19th century. By this Convention the two governments gave effect to a 1911 arbitration award under 1963 conditions. The Convention provided for the relocation of the IBWC of the 7 km (4.4 miles) of the channel of the Rio Grande so as to transfer a net amount of 176.92 hectares (437.18 acres) from the north to the south side of the river. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson met Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos in El Paso on 24 September 1964 to commemorate the ratification of the Chamizal Convention.

The 1970 Boundary Treaty (23 November) resolved all pending boundary differences and provided for maintaining the Rio Grande and the Colorado River as the international boundary. The Rio Grande was reestablished as the boundary throughout its 2,019-km (1,254 mile) limitrophe section. The Treaty includes provisions for restoring and preserving the character of the Rio Grande as the international boundary where that character has been lost, to minimize changes in the channel, and to resolve problems of sovereignty that might arise due to future changes in the channel of the Rio Grande. It provides for procedures designed to avoid the loss of territory by either country incident to future changes in the river's course due causes other than lateral movement, incident to eroding one of its banks and depositing alluvium on the opposite bank. This treaty, too, charged the IBWC with carrying out its provisions.

Migration issues

Image:ElPaso-Juarez-EO.JPG

In addition to its vast flows of legal traffic, the U.S.–Mexico border is also perhaps the world's land border with the highest number of illegal crossings. 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.

See also

Sources

Parts of this article have been adapted from The International Boundary and Water Commission, Its Mission, Organization and Procedures for Solution of Boundary and Water Problems, a public domain publication of the United States Government.
Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/United_States%E2%80%93Mexico_border.html"


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