Naturalizing Mexican Immigrants : A Texas History

CHAPTER 1. From the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Border to the U.S. Civil War

The U.S. Congress passed its first Naturalization Act in 1790 and chose to allow only white immigrants to become naturalized citizens. This racial stipulation was not nullified until the passage of the Nationality and Immigration Act of 1952 (Hull 1985). Prior to removing the racial clause, Congress did allow certain nonwhite immigrant groups to apply for citizenship . Mexican immigrants were the first to be given an exemption from the nation’s racial naturalization statute, followed soon by black immigrants. These naturalization reforms were the outcome of the U.S. government’s transformation following the U.S. Civil War, when the U.S. Congress began the process of reforming its citizenship laws. In 1868 African Americans born in the United States were made citizens, and within the next two years Mexican and black immigrants were allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship. Black immigrants were given the right as a means of creating a uniform law consistent with the enfranchisement of African Americans. Mexican immigrants, on the other hand, were given the right as a result of treaty negotiations with Mexico. As a result of political alliances forged during the Civil War, Mexico and the United States entered a phase of improved international relations during which they enacted the Naturalization Treaty of 1868, stipulating that in both countries immigrants had the right to naturalize. For Mexican and black immigrants the reforms were a political triumph, but for many Anglo-Americans the changes were devastating and came to be regarded as unjust. The policies enacted for blacks could not be challenged because the laws were clear. Opponents of extending citizenship to Mexican immigrants, however, charged that the Naturalization Treaty was vague and applied to Mexicans only if they were white or black. Nearly three decades later, opponents of the Naturalization Treaty, pointing to the fact that most Mexicans were of mixed racial ancestry (Indian, CHAPTER 1 From the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Border to the U.S. Civil War 16 Naturalizing Mexican Immigrants white and black), charged that Mexicans with Indian blood were ineligible to apply for naturalization because Indians in the United States could not be made citizens. This interpretation of the treaty awarded those who opposed giving citizenship to Mexican immigrants a recourse for stopping Mexicans from naturalizing. To reconstitute the events surrounding the Naturalization Treaty and what I consider to be the first phase of the Mexican immigrant’s naturalization history, I begin my historical narrative by examining why, in the nineteenth century, Mexicans in the United States held an ambiguous legal position in American society. I briefly examine the Mexican people’s racial history during the nineteenth century to illustrate why their mixed racial ancestry became the legal basis to deny Mexican immigrants U.S. citizenship . For those interested in an expansive analysis of the Mexican American ’s racial heritage I refer you to my book Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans (Menchaca 2001). Here I provide a summary of this racial history, as my intent is to focus on significant events shaping the Mexican immigrants’ naturalization experiences. I begin my account with a discussion of the formation of the U.S.-Mexico border and conclude with remarks on the racial reforms enacted by the U.S. government after the U.S. Civil War. I also begin to unfold the events that led Mexico to gradually become economically dependent on the United States, a relationship that has endured up to the present. Race and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Border The making of the U.S.-Mexico border began with international disputes over where Texas territory began and ended. In 1845 the U.S. government annexed Texas and made it the twenty-eighth state of the Union (Montejano 1987: 82–85). Acting unilaterally and forgoing any consultation with Mexico, the U.S. Congress set the border at the Rio Grande, claiming South Texas and El Paso were part of the annexed territory. Mexico disputed the boundary, holding that the border lay further north on the Nueces River. Mexico agreed that U.S. territory included the former Mexican city of San Antonio as well as surrounding settlements, but not any of the Mexican settlements in South Texas or along the present Texas southwestern border. The U.S. Congress disagreed, and the dispute became so contentious and unresolvable that the United States declared war against Mexico on May 11, 1846 (Menchaca 2001: 216). Fourteen months...