United States–Mexico border

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The international border between the United States and Mexico 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 1,951 miles (3,141 km), according to figures given by the International Boundary and Water Commission.<ref>The International Boundary and Water Commission, Its Mission, Organization and Procedures for Solution of Boundary and Water Problems. Retrieved on 2006-03-07.</ref> It is the most frequently crossed international border in the world, with some 350 million people crossing (legally) every year.<ref>Borders and Law Enforcement. US Embassy Mexico. Retrieved on 2006-03-07.</ref>

1 Geography
2 History
3 Security issues
4 Border surveillance
5 See also
6 References
7 Sources

[edit] Geography

On the left: Nogales, Arizona; on the right, Nogales, Sonora

In the United States, Texas has the longest stretch of the border of any state, while California has the shortest. In Mexico, Chihuahua has the longest border, while Nuevo León has the shortest.

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 1,254 miles (2,019 km) 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 533 miles (858 km) to the Colorado River. Thence it follows the middle of that river northward a distance of 24 miles (38 km), and then it again follows an alignment westward overland and marked by monuments a distance of 141 miles (226 km) to the Pacific Ocean.

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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.

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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:

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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.

[edit] 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.

Image:Us-mexico-boundary-marker.jpg

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 United States and Imperial Spain, was the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty, which defined the border between the republic and the 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.

[edit] Security issues

The U.S.–Mexico border has the highest number of both legal and illegal crossings of any land border in the world. 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. A large percentage of the border is guarded by large numbers of patrolling agents of the U.S. federal government.

El Paso (top) and Ciudad Juárez (bottom) seen from earth orbit; the Rio Grande is the thin line separating the two cities through the middle of the photograph.

For a period of time in the 1990s U.S. Army personnel were stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border to help stem the flow of illegal aliens and drug smugglers. These military units brought their specialized equipment such as FLIR infrared devices and helicopters. In conjunction with the U.S. Border Patrol, they would deploy along the border and, for a brief time, there would be no traffic across that border which was actively watched by "coyotes" paid to assist border crossers. The smugglers and the alien traffickers simply ceased operations over the one hundred mile sections of the border sealed at a time. It was very effective but temporary as the illegal traffic resumed as soon as the military withdrew.[1] After the September 11, 2001 attacks the United States looked at the feasability of placing soldiers along the U.S.-Mexico border as a security measure. Some believe the whole U.S.-Mexico border could be sealed with as few as 100 helicopters equipped with FLIR (forward looking infrared) scopes, and a few hundred men equipped with state of the art sensors, scopes and other electronics. Opposition says this is a violation of Posse Comitatus although the army patroled the border for more than 46 years after the passage of the Posse Comitatus act. [2] Others, perhaps more realistic, believe that you could never completely close the border but could possibly put a serious dent in illegal cross border traffic with a more robust military presence and a larger, more pro-active Border Patrol.

Each state in the United States has a National Guard organization that could, in principle, be placed on the border at a state governor's discretion to assist with border security; many states also have a backup to the National Guard called the State Defense Force that could, in an emergency, also be activated for this purpose. However, few governors have done this. Many governors fear a backlash from local businesses and ever increasing communities of Mexicans. Arizona and New Mexico have currently declared the counties that border Mexico to be under serious duress caused by uncontrolled illegal immigrant traffic, thereby enabling governors to deploy National Guardsmen to the international border. However, Senator John Mc Cain, R-Arizona has opposed some measures intended to reduce illegal immigration through enforcement and proposed a bill calling for earned legalization (which many call amnesty) in the Senate. In May 2006, President Bush announced a plan whereby up to 6,000 National Guardsmen would help build facilities on the border to assist the Border Patrol with tactical and technical measures but not enforcement duties. There has been some resistance: in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger initially denied Bush's request to deploy 3,000 National Guard troops to the California-Baja California border.<ref>"Schwarzenegger defies Bush on border troops", Washington Times, June 25, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.</ref> Later Schwarzenegger changed his mind after being reassured of reimbursement and replacement if they are needed elsewhere and deployed over 1600 California National Guard troops to the border.

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It is estimated that over a million people cross the border illegally each year, most [~80%] are Mexicans. 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 which do have extensive border fencing. 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 been challenged by the Mexican government, undocumented workers living in the United States, and various U.S.-based Chicano organizations. About 45% of all agricultural laborers in the United States are undocumented immigrants, according to migration experts at the University of California, Davis. According to the experts, agricultural work is one of the many types of work that illegal immigrants fill that could not be easily filled by United States citizens. (See: Illegal immigration to the United States)

In December 2005, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to build a separation barrier along parts of the border. A companion vote in the United States Senate on May 17, 2006 included a plan to blockade 860 miles of the border with vehicle barriers and triple-layer fencing. Appearing on the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, Bay Buchanan, head of Team America, an immigration reduction political action committee, estimated that it would take less than six months to build a 2,000 mile, triple-layer fence and would cost roughly $1.5 - 3 billion. On the same show, Buchanan claimed that the 1990s-era border security program Operation Gatekeeper cut down unauthorized immigration by 90%. Similar results are predicted for a wall covering the entire border, which proponents hope will reduce illegal drug smuggling and illegal immigration drastically.

According to Dr. Douglass Massey of the Cato Institute (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 from re-entering Mexico and then returning, 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 has presented an initiative to reinstate a Guest Worker Program or expand the H-2B program to fill the perceived needs of labor for some areas of the U.S. and, at the same time, has pushed to strengthen the security measures at the border to stop suspected illegal immigrants, terrorists and narcotics dealers from entering the U.S.

[edit] Border surveillance

The Department of Homeland Security now deploys a Predator B UAV on the border and is partnering with the Department of Defense in its border security mission. [3]

Under multibillion-dollar federal contracts[4], the largest military corporations offered high-tech border survey systems [5], including:

Lockheed Martin’s Tethered Aerostat Radar, a helium-filled airship twice the size of the Goodyear Blimp, attached to the ground by a cable. It can hover overhead, automatically monitoring any movement on the ground. These systems are being used to broadcast TV Marti to Cuba and to detect insurgents in Iraq

Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk, an unmanned aerial vehicle with a wingspan nearly as wide as a Boeing 737, which can snoop on movement along the border from heights of up to 65,000 feet. The system is the most expensive unmanned-air-vehicle currently available.

Raytheon's "Terminator family" of sensors and video equipment now used by U.S. troops in Iraq. The system monitors an area and uses software to identify suspicious objects, analyzing and highlighting them even before anyone is sent to respond.

Boeing, selected in September 2006 to coordinate such subcontractors, will "be charged with lining up radar systems, cameras, ground sensors, aerial vehicles, wireless communications equipment and vehicle barriers, as well as traditional fences. It will also coordinate their use by a Border Patrol force that is supposed to be made up of 18,000 officers by 2008." [6]