Manifest Destiny Analysis

Obviously Hidden
Validating “Otherness” in the Minds of the Masses Through Legislation

Leonardo L. Trevino
HIST 3423.001 U.S.-Mexico Border
December 10, 2014
In academia, scholars often spend a great deal of time thinking and trying to make sense of an unbalanced world. Examining evidence, writing thesis, and publishing works in order to raise awareness to the inequities in our society and, generate scholarship for future generations become the weapons of the educated. Something very precious is left behind though; Raza . It is easy to find pragmatic data explaining a majority of Raza is uneducated by popular standards. What requires more insight and investigative intuition is an answer to the question of “Why?” …show more content…
While products of their time the men who wrote and signed the U.S.’s most cherished document, the Constitution, did not do so with every human being living within its borders. Not even when the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted did it imply freedom for all. It is easy to question the intent of government regarding legislation which impacts the future of society but, Manifest Destiny … there’s an ideology worth examining. At its inception, “coined by John O’Sullivan in 1845, the term Manifest Destiny,” was an idea which projected the rational that “God himself blessed the growth of the American Nation.” Who can argue with God? This belief established the validation Anglo immigrants needed in order to justify their heinous behavior towards Mexicanos. It also justified brutal tactics during the U.S.’s westward expansion throughout The Frontier. Bluntly, anyone not willing to jump on board with the idea of “development” by a standard imposed without the consideration of all was considered “an enemy of the state.” These opponents were not afforded public audiences and were ousted from their respective communities; hence the idea of the “other” but it didn’t end there. This framework becomes the rationalization for everything the U.S. government does in the name of progress in future decades, at whatever …show more content…
During this time, agribusinesses are prospering from the labor traveling into their sectors along with Braceros. Someone needed to work in their fields so “agribusiness men recruited seasonal labor from Mexico and rarely hesitated to demand immigration control practices that promoted their desire for unrestricted Mexican labor migration to the United States.” To put it frankly, Mexicanos are not coming uninvited, they are being welcomed with open arms. Living conditions, wages, citizenship are things related to immigration. The U.S. however, deals with any issues by the use of military force. Though military conscripts were not called upon, a much more subtle yet, lethal force was born. Hernández calls the la Migra’s inception in 1924 “small beginnings,” while she compares the $1,000,000 start up to the $11,341,770 of the Narcotics Division of the Prohibition Unit in 1925 (after a year of operating); the terror they brought with them however was completely free. Since Congress failed in detailing the intent of Migra processes and, there being an existing legislation with an extremely vague mandate on how to “enforce the provisions of the Immigration Act of 1917 and subsequent acts … to prevent unlawful entry of aliens into the United States” became the main focus. The mere fact that there needs to be a “force” to deal with this “issue” carries certain implications that

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