Historian root of the devil's highway - Assignment Example

Thus entering America by any means had become a necessity for the Mexican people. For that they are ready to do any compromise, even sacrificing their lives also. The book “Devil’s Highway” is based on the same issue of illegal immigration from Mexico to United States. It is a true story that involves many aspects such as border issue, gangsters, deprived conditions of the immigrants, the business involved in illegal migration, political issues from both sides and many more. In this paper following major aspects of the story have been discussed 1.

Migrant Labour 2. Federal Economy 3. Border policy History of Migrant Labors, border policies and the Economical Factors: Though the story is shocking, it is not an unexpected or new. “Two thousand people died crossing the border in the five years before these 26 men hit the road.” (Marc Ramirez 2012) The migration is a common phenomenon, which has its root in the history of American immigration. The beginning of migration of Mexican people to United States started in the early years of twentieth century.

It happened in around 1907, when the Japanese immigration was abridged. When America officially entered World War I, the country was in need of Mexican laborers. After the war the US Border Patrol was created and it culminated into the restrictions the Mexican immigrations. Yet unskilled migrants started entering US for meeting their economic demands. Many times it was an illegal immigration. In early 1930s there was a slight drop in the migration. The demand for Mexican laborers again increased after Pearl Harbor.

There was an agreement between US and Mexican government for a large number of Mexican laborers. This is known as braceros. During wartime the source of food supply was the Mexican laborers. A professor of Mexican and Latin American politics and economics, Jorge Dominguez Madero states, “It was Mexicans and Rosie the Riveter who ran the American economy and enabled American citizens to go to war,” The US growers pressurized to continue the same immigration process even after the end of the war.

But there was an acute shortage of the documented or legal laborers, hence the illegal recruitment of Mexican laborers continued. The illegal immigrants became the major support for the US agricultural economy. In 1964 the US government ended the Bracero program and after that the problem of illegal migration started growing. In 1968 the economic condition in Mexico was horrible and it led to the number of undocumented immigration. “Mexican immigrants became convenient scapegoats for widespread joblessness and budget shortfalls.

Paradoxically, they were blamed simultaneously for “taking away jobs from Americans” and “living off public relief.”” (Douglas Massey, Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone Pg.33) Economic condition/ poverty of Mexican: Both Mexican Government and US government did not pay much attention to the immigration issue till 1980. Many reasons were involved in it. In 1986, the United States passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), but there was no voice from the side of Mexican Government.

In political and economic unrest there is no substitute for Mexican immigrants to move to United States. The financial crisis led immigration. ‘Enrique Landeros Garcia was thirty years old. His wife, Octavia, was only twenty-three. They had a son named Alexis. He had recently turned seven, and he was ready for school, but Enrique and Octavia didn’