1836 Texas gains independence from Mexico

1846 US and Mexico go to War over the US/MX border

1848 US and Mexico sign a peace treaty setting the 1948 borders of US/MX

1853 Gadsden Purchase - US pays $15 million dollars for 30,000 square miles sold to the US, that set the current borders pretty much as they are now, worth about $297 million dollars today

1890 LA Times newspaper displays first headline about illegal aliens

1904 The first Border Patrol begins to stop Asian workers from crossing illegally

1910 The Mexican Revolution begins and thousands of Mexicans cross into the US for safety

1911 The first large group of Mexicans to organize against social injustice, El Primer Congreso Mexicanista, they meet in Laredo, TX

1914 The Colorado militia attacks striking coal miners, it is dubbed the Ludlow Massacre. More than 50 people were killed, mostly Mexican Americans, the deaths included 11 children and 3 women

1917 Factories across the US need more workers, as Americans leave for war. Latinos begin moving north in large numbers for the first time. They find jobs as  mechanics, press workers, meat packers, machinists, and ship building

1928 Octaviano Larrazolo of New Mexico becomes the first Latino U.S. Senator

1930 The US begins the removal of Mexcians even if they were born here to help protect American jobs during the Great Depression

1932 Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew, becomes the first Latino named to the U.S. Supreme Court

1942 Bracero program is introduced due to shortages of agricultural workers

1942 Hundreds of thousands of Latinos serve in the armed forces during World War II

1943 Los Angeles erupts in the Zoot Suit Riots. Sailors claimed that "zoot suiters" stabbed a sailor, and they retaliated by beating young Hispanics in "zoot suits". The military men drag kids -- some as young as 12 years old -- out of movie theaters and cafes, tearing their clothes off and viciously beating them.

1954 President Eisenhower runs "Operation Wetback", (our apologies, it is a despicable term, but that was the name) the US deports over 1.2 million Mexicans back to Mexico

1963 The US and Mexico sign the Chamizal treaty in El Paso, TX to cement the Rio Grande border line

1964 Bracero program is shut down

1964 Cezar Chavez and Dolores Huerta create the United Farm Workers Union

1968 The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund is created and becomes the first legal fund to pursue protection of the civil rights of Latinos

1976 President Jimmy Carter tries to pass an Amnesty Bill and fails

1986 President Ronald Regan passes an amnesty bill, but only if the US enforces sanctions of up to $1 million dollars against employers

1988 President Ronald Reagan appoints Dr. Lauro Cavazos as Secretary of Education. He is the first Latino appointed to a presidential cabinet.

1989 Miami's Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban American, is the first Latina elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

1993 Janet Reno visits the US/MX border and is appalled at the mass crossings

1993 Solid Fencing Begins to be built up on US/MX border

1993 Operation Hold the Line in El Paso, Texas. In October 1993

1994 Clinton gets NAFTA which began with Canada in 1988 to include Mexico, goes into effect

1994 Operation Gatekeeper was announced by Attorney General Janet Reno, and deaths on the US/MX border rise dramatically

1994 Proposition 187 is passed by the California voters denying tax payer funded community services (emergency hospital, education, ect.) to undocumented workers

1995 Operation Gatekeeper II was implemented, again with an increase in migrant border deaths

1996 President Bill Clinton beefs up the US/MX border and builds a 40 miles wall from Tijuana Beach East

1997 A US District judge rules California's Prop 187 as unconstitutional

2001 September 11th happened and Pres. Bush, order a clamp down on the US/MX Border

2002 Chris Simcox founded Civil Homeland Defense, commonly known as the Minute Men

2003 The DHS absorbed US Immigration and Naturalization Service, and assumed its duties

2005 The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was signed

2005 The governors of New Mexico and Arizona declare a state of emergency in their border counties

2006 Eddie "Piol�n" Sotelo gets 1 million citizens to sign a letter demanding immigration reform

2006 President George W Bush tries to pass an amnesty bill and fails

2006 Right wing talk radio begins a series of anti-illegal immigrant protests, by flaming fears of middle eastern terrorists crossing the border of US/MX

2006 Congress passes and President Bush signs into law the 700 Mile fence law, introduced by Duncan Hunter

2006 Latino Immigrants and their allies launch large demonstrations in cities across the country in support of immigrant rights and to protest the growing resentment toward undocumented workers

2006 President George W Bush sends the National Guard to the US/MX border

2006 Ramos and Compean were incarcerated January 17, 2007, for wounding a drug smuggler at the US/MX border (and were railroaded)

2007 President Bush recalls most of the National Guard from the border

2007 Steven Timper films "Bleeding Borders" by interviewing folks on both sides of the border - no reports of terrorists crossings were verified

2007 After smuggling tunnels and loads of dope discovered in Tecate, the Tecate police chief is gunned down by 25 assassins in his home at night

2008 DHS eases the requirements for farmers to legally hire temporary farm workers

2008 Steven Timper returns to the US/MX border to film the new fences recently completed by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security)

2008 Steven Timper has a change of heart (epiphany) and sides with immigration reform advocates, and changes the theme of the film

2008 DHS continues it's campaign of work place raids across the US