Immigration history from the Hispanic perspective

Hispanics have been within US borders since before 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed after the Mexican-American war had occurred. This treaty signed over a large portion of the land property belonging to Mexico for US $15 Million, which did not include Texas (which would be bought at later date) but the area which was signed over contained Mexican citizens which owned property on the land. These individuals were given the chance to become United States citizens under the agreed terms of the treaty. This was later altered in the agreement under the US senate making it to where Mexican citizens would be given a chance to be admitted under special circumstances when their cases where heard by a judge at the proper time. Many of the property holders lost their land and the United States took over their land grants as opposed in the initial agreement.

Following into the next century, World War I brought on concerns that the agricultural industry would suffer, calling to action temporary admission of nearly 77,000 Mexican citizens to help work fields and maintain agricultural crop production during the war. When the war ended, many of the Mexican worker force stayed to continue working until the great depression. Deportation in the 1930s ensued as the great depression was hard hitting to the United States, and the lack of jobs made it impossible to earn enough money that could support these workers by their employers.

Around 1942, during World War II, the Bracero program was put into place to recruit immigrant workers to work in manual labor jobs. This brought as much as 125,000 migrant workers into the US to work on railroads and agricultural jobs. The railroad program ended with the war putting 75,000 of the migrant workers out of jobs but the agricultural program lasted as far as 1964 when it was discontinued due to criticism from various sources. The large amount of illegal immigrants in the US between WWII and 1954 brought attention to the Mexican Nationals not in government sanctioned agricultural programs and “Operation Wetback” was put into place by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) that was designed to remove 3 million of these undocumented immigrants from the US.

Pulling forward in time to where the Immigration Act of 1990 was set in place, the amount of legal immigrants allowed every year was now limited to 700,000 individuals. The preference for immigrants was given to those who had family members living in the US who could sponsor their entry and provide proof of relation through family petitions. This worked very well up to the point in which more and more individuals wanted to get into the country but did not fit the requirements to legally enter. This prompted an increase in illegal immigration which remained consistent through unsecured points in the United States border and even through the smuggling of Mexican Citizens through US ports of entry.

US Census data in the year 2000 states that there were approximately 35.5 million Hispanics which were counted that made up approximately 12.5 percent of the known population in the continental US. This data was updated in 2006 to include counts reaching approximately 44.3 million by July 1st. These figures must be realized in terms that are currently fully unknown as a large amount of Hispanics would be cautious to make themselves exposed during periods of time when unknown individuals come to the door. Census workers are also not allowed to disclose anything in their reports or express to anyone of any illegal activity that they witness during their time as a census worker, including illegal immigrants living within the US which curve Hispanic related population statistics in the Census data publication.

Up until current times, the battle for immigration reform is still under way and current efforts being made by US government officials as high in rank as the Commander in Chief, President Barack Hussein Obama are under way to change how the system works. These efforts are to better immigration guidelines for those trying to legally enter the country and to identify illegal immigrants and have them undergo a process to fairly place them in line for a chance of admission into the US on working terms or to grant legal citizenship when specific conditions are met.