Gadsden Purchase no relation Immigration reduction in the United States
History
Origins
Territorial exchanges in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853) would largely establish the current U.S.-Mexico border. Until the early 20th century, the border was open and largely unpatrolled, with only a few "mounted guards" patrolling its length. However, tensions between the United States and Mexico started to rise with the Mexican Revolution (1910) and World War I, which also increased concerns about weapons smuggling, refugees and cross-border espionage. The first international bridge was the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge built in 1910. The first barrier built by the U.S. (a barbed wire fence to prevent the movement of cattle across the border) was built in Ambos Nogales between 1909 and 1911, which was expanded in 1929 with a "six foot–high chain-link fence". The first barrier built by Mexico was likely a six-foot-tall wire fence built in 1918 explicitly for the purpose of directing the flow of people, also in Ambos Nogales. Barriers were extended in the following decades, with barriers becoming a common feature in border towns by the 1920s. In the 1940s, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service built chain-link barriers along the border.The U.S. Congress approved a $4.3 million request by Immigration and Naturalization Service, in 1978, to build a fence along the border to replace an existing 27-mile fence near San Ysidro, California, and El Paso, Texas, and then build an additional six miles of new fence. Anchor Post Products was contracted to build the new fence in a project inherited from Richard Nixon, who was the first president to propose building a border fence. The proposed construction received press coverage after the company's George Norris, described the fence as a "razor-sharp wall", leading to negative responses in Mexico. The proposed wall, dubbed the "Tortilla Curtain" by critics,  was condemned by Mexican politicians such as then-president José López Portillo, and it was raised as an issue during President Jimmy Carter's state visit to Mexico in February 1979. Fencing was ultimately constructed, but had a limited length and did not have razor wire.U.S. President George H. W. Bush approved the initial 14 miles of fencing along the San Diego–Tijuana border. In 1993, President Bill Clinton oversaw initial border fence construction which was completed by the end of the year. Starting in 1994, further barriers were built under Clinton's presidency as part of three larger operations to taper transportation of illegal drugs manufactured in Latin America and immigration: Operation Gatekeeper in California, Operation Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona. Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which authorized further barriers and the reinforcement of the initial border fence. The majority of the border barriers built in the 1990s were made out of leftover helicopter landing mats from the Vietnam War.
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