Blame James Polk for illegal immigration!

[gabosaurus]

My cousin Dahlia (whose mother, my aunt, is a Mexican immigrant) and I talk about this on occasion. Dahlia is a social worker. Her husband is an immigration attorney.

American problems with illegal immigration go back to 1848. That is when the U.S. decided to expand its border down to what is now Texas and across to the Pacific Ocean. The Mexican government disapproved and the two sides went to war over it.
The U.S. army actually crossed the border and drove the Mexican army out of its capitol. The Mexican government was forced to surrender.
Resisting cries to add Mexico as a part of the U.S., Polk decided to add what is now California, Arizona and New Mexico instead.
It all falls in line with what friends of my brother in law have always told me:

"The U.S. took parts of the Southwest from Mexico in the 1800s. Now we're taking it back."

[Mr. P]

My cousin Dahlia (whose mother, my aunt, is a Mexican immigrant) and I talk about this on occasion. Dahlia is a social worker. Her husband is an immigration attorney.

American problems with illegal immigration go back to 1848. That is when the U.S. decided to expand its border down to what is now Texas and across to the Pacific Ocean. The Mexican government disapproved and the two sides went to war over it.
The U.S. army actually crossed the border and drove the Mexican army out of its capitol. The Mexican government was forced to surrender.
Resisting cries to add Mexico as a part of the U.S., Polk decided to add what is now California, Arizona and New Mexico instead.
It all falls in line with what friends of my brother in law have always told me:

"The U.S. took parts of the Southwest from Mexico in the 1800s. Now we're taking it back."

I think we bought it.

The cession of this territory from Mexico was a condition for the end of the war, as United States troops occupied Mexico City, and Mexico risked being completely annexed by the U.S. The United States also paid $15,000,000 ($298,310,309 in 2005) for the land, and agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts to US citizens.

I guess they could buy it back at market value.

[hjmick]

Texas had won it's independence from Mexico and was a country unto itself prior to joining the Union. The U.S. didn't just "take" Texas from Mexico.

[gabosaurus]

You dudes are missing the point I am trying to make.
At the conclusion of the war in 1848, the U.S. occupied Mexico. They surrendered their country to us. We gave it back to them. And we gave them money.
Some say we have been giving them money every since.

[5stringJeff]

Your cousin needs to brush up on her history.

First of all, Texas kicked the damn Mexican Army's ass at San Jacinto, securing our independence. However, there was a disagreement as to the southern border of Texas. We claimed the Rio Grande as our southern (and western) border, and the Mexicans claimed it was the Nueces river. Polk sent troops into the disputed region in 1846, after Texas was annexed (in 1845), and thus the Mexican-American war started. We won the war, capturing Mexico City, and had every right to take all the American Southwest. But, we paid them for it.
Second, it's been 160 years since America took over that land. The Mexicans need to update their maps.

[Yurt]

what the "f" are mexicans? anyone who is anybody in that country looks spanish.......

oh, and according to the "native" ""mexican"" calandar, we are all dead in 4 years

[Pale Rider]

You dudes are missing the point I am trying to make.
At the conclusion of the war in 1848, the U.S. occupied Mexico. They surrendered their country to us. We gave it back to them. And we gave them money.
Some say we have been giving them money every since.

What people always fail to realise, if they want to play these kinds of games is, the "Spanish" took "Mexico" from the Mayans and the Aztecs, so technically, Mexico doesn't belong to any mexican of Spanish decent either, and that's the vast majority of them. Maybe Mexico should start it's own campaign to start kicking Spanish people out of Mexico.

[gabosaurus]

Jeff, you need to check YOUR history. After Texas won its independence, the U.S. expressed its desire to claim additional land from Mexico and England. The English had domestic trouble and did not dispute. The Mexicans, still under the leadership of Santa Ana, disputed the claims. The American army pushed the Mexicans back across the Rio Grande, then won several more battles that saw them advance to what is now Mexico City.