Mexico's Relationship with the US

The relationship between the United States and Mexico has been very complicated. The relationship had a very rocky start to say the least because less than 20 years of becoming an independent nation from Spain, Mexico lost Texas to the US. There was then the Mexican-American War from 1846-1848 where the US wins California, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Nevada, and Mexico only get $15 million in compensation for war-related damage to Mexican land. By the 20^th century the two countries were able to find some common ground. Due to the Mexican Revolution, the US allowed more than 890,000 Mexicans to migrate to the US. Then in 1933, the Good Neighbor Policy was introduced. This called for the US would not pursue interventionist policies in Mexico (and the rest of Latin America); thus alleviating some of the power tension between the two countries. From there, the US and Mexico have had stronger and tighter relations. There is a bilateral cooperation to fight the War on Drugs and the economies now rely on each other, especially after the signing of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Today Mexico is the US’s second largest export market, third largest trading partner, and there is about $500 billion trade between the two countries.

Now there are still some issues between the US and Mexico, especially with the border. Since 9/11 the US has tightened up its security on all borders, especially with Mexico. The two nations share a 2,000 miles long border that now has a fence along the border that stretches for about 670 miles. Even though the estimated number of illegal immigrants coming into the US has decreased, the Hispanic minority in the US has become the biggest minority (exceeding the African-American population). This has caused a lot of tension between the US government and states because of the fear of Americans losing job opportunities to the immigrants. However, President Obama has passed the Immigration Accountability Executive Actions which is allowing about 5 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the US, with some restrictions (ex. Criminal background).

Sources:

·       http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35749.htm

·       http://www.euronews.com/2014/02/18/the-us-and-mexico-a-strong-but-difficult-relationship/

·       http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/us-mexico-relationship-enrique-pea-nieto-113980

·       https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/20/fact-sheet-immigration-accountability-executive-action

·       http://www.cfr.org/mexico/us-mexico-relations-1810-present/p19092