Imaginary Lines: Border Enforcement and the Origins of Undocumented Immigration, 1882 – 1930

Abstract

During the late nineteenth century, growing concerns in the United States about immigration resulted in a series of laws intended to significantly curtail or ideally stop the entry of economic, medical, political, and racial undesirables. These laws denied entry to many; however, the laws also encouraged immigrants to seek alternative routes. In this timely and succinct study, Patrick Ettinger examines US efforts to control illicit immigration from 1882 to 1930 along the Canadian and, especially, Mexican borders. According to Ettinger, change and continuity characterized US government efforts. Whereas the northern and southern borders during this period changed from nominally “guarded” to heavily patrolled, despite increases in resources, illegal border crossings continued. This “ungovernability” of the border, Ettinger argues, reveals not only the limits of state power in enforcing national boundaries but immigrants’ creative and successful resistance.According to Ettinger, 1882 marked the beginning of significant decades-long efforts to restrict entry based on race, class, and ethnicity. In a pattern that would be repeated, efforts to enforce restrictions against the poor and the Chinese at maritime ports simply led determined immigrants to land in Canada or Mexico and enter the United States along the largely unguarded land borders. As Ettinger explains, by 1891, although many in Congress expressed alarm about the permeability of the Mexican and Canadian borders, they also considered illegal land entries as peripheral and focused instead on expanding the categories of excludable immigrants and enforcing stronger federal control over seaports. While the Immigration Act of 1891 created the Bureau of Immigration, he points out that this new agency struggled to enforce existing laws and failed to keep up with new methods of border crossings that shifted primarily to Mexico after 1902. Violence and dislocations caused by the Mexican Revolution, Ettinger argues, coupled with economic growth in the US Southwest again transformed immigration patterns. For the first time, large-scale Mexican immigration became the norm and by 1930, Mexicans had replaced Asians and Europeans as the main target of border authorities.Although Mexicans were technically subject to immigration restrictions, authorities did not strictly enforce those regulations because Mexicans were seen as temporary visitors and workers. Thus, according to Ettinger, border authorities constructed a “Mexican exception” to restriction laws. Border officials under pressure from competing interests attempted to balance US economic demands against immigration restrictionists. Thus in 1915, when railroad construction declined, officials turned away high numbers of Mexicans at the border as potential paupers. During the economic boom years of 1917 to 1921, farmers’ and railroad executives’ demands for labor resulted in exemptions for tens of thousands of Mexicans. Not surprisingly, there was no significant decline in Mexican migration into the United States when labor demands eased after 1921. Further, even with the creation of the Border Patrol in 1924, there was little change in border permeability. Mexicans, like other immigrants before them, disregarded various requirements for entry, including visas, health certificates, and proof of literacy. Thus, according to Ettinger, the Border Patrol focused on what was possible: creating deterrents and keeping the number of illegal entries down.Ettinger is effective in illustrating the tensions between restrictive legislation and immigrant innovation. While the discussion on the US-Mexico border is focused and well-developed, his examination of the Canadian border lacks depth. For example, according to Ettinger, after 1902, illicit European entry by way of the northern border effectively ended as the Canadian government began serious screening of immigrants arriving at its seaports. Why this change occurred in 1902 and why, how, and if the Canadians successfully controlled their entry ports in the following decades remains unanswered. Further, this also begs the question: Can the permeability of the southern border be attributed simply to the lack of Mexican government cooperation? Despite these gaps, this is an engaging study that students of immigration and border history will find worthwhile.