As citizens within the United States, we have gotten used to the borderlines that have been mapped out in this country, not thinking much of it. Something outside of political and social intellectualization. But borders are very much inherently socio-political. It is a reflection of the settler-colonial image, of a settler topography and geography. Such borderlines cannot be drawn through simple imagination, it can only be done through colonial-imperialist violence and war.
In a pursuit of land through the annexation of Texas came the Spanish-American war of 1846-1848. War, the logical conclusion and necessity for an expansive empire. Who decides to draw the borders and what land can be seized is decided by the victor, the United States. While Mexico was able to keep some land and the US was able to annex more than 500,000 square miles, ultimately, the losers are the Indigenous within those borderlines such as the Yaqui / Yoeme, the O’odham, the Cocopah / Cucapá, the Kumeyaay / Kumiai, the Pai, the Apaches, and the Kickapoo / Kikapú.
Borders are representative of a racial hierarchical division, “you are allowed land, only insofar as we, the settler, allow it.” It is a restriction of movement of both the Indigenous in the United States and those in Mexico.