Why are there immigration laws

Originally Posted by warch

Aztlan activists unfortunately identify with the Palestinians. (Forced off their land and all when the US map was drawn). Its the radical far left, you can find a parallel with the radical far right advocating shooting the wetbacks. Note that they are not the majority, even if they have a website and a digital camera. Nor, do I hope are the border vigilantes.

I never considered that aspect before, but its an interesting point. The Spanish settlers of New Mexico and southern Colorado (many of whom can trace their ancestry back to the time when Mexico was still a colony of Spain), were deprived of important land and water rights which had been given them by law from the Spanish Crown.

Naturally, when the US won the Mexican American War, it had little interest in any legal documents between inhabitants who had been there for almost 200 years and any treaties they might have had with a foreign nation. The US usurped any water rights (VERY important in the arid American West) and rights to common grazing lands that the people who were living there once had. This was done (as always) to benefit a few backers of the administration currently in power. Whatever lands these sycophants didn't want were later turned over to the Forest Service and the BLM. Without water to irrigate their fields and land on which to allow their stock to graze, the small farmers who had at least been making a living were turned ultimately into welfare recipients and deemed "lazy Mexicans."

If you ever drive through Magdalena, New Mexico and get a rock thrown through you're windshield, you'll now know why.