It has been suggested that Horcón Tract be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since March 2020. |
Río Rico is a town located along the Rio Grande river in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It includes a portion of the Horcón Tract, a piece of land ceded by the United States to Mexico in 1977 under the terms of the Boundary Treaty of 1970.
History
In 1906, the Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company performed an unauthorized diversion of the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), which moved a 413-acre (1.67 km2) tract of land, including Rio Rico, south of the river. The company was later fined, but the diversion of the river was allowed to stand if the company placed boundary markers, which it never did.[1]
The land was now physically south of the Rio Grande—the border between Mexico and the U.S. since 1845—and Mexican authorities unknowingly assumed control of the area, which became known as the Horcón Tract.[2] However, since the course change was due to man-made changes and not natural changes, international law dictated that the land remained US territory, a fact that was not in dispute. Something of a resort town grew up there during the 1920s and 1930s, with free-flowing liquor and gambling.[3]
The U.S. eventually ceded the territory to Mexico with the Boundary Treaty of 1970, and it was formally annexed by the state of Tamaulipas. The handover took place in 1977. After one local resident filed a lawsuit to prevent the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service from deporting him, the US courts ruled that all residents born in the city prior to 1972 could retain their US citizenship.[4] The ruling almost emptied the city of residents as they were now able to move to other areas of the United States as full citizens.[5]
Horcón Tract
The Horcón Tract (26°03′22″N 97°53′24″W / 26.05611°N 97.89000°W) is a small tract of land (a banco) that, prior to 1905, was situated north of the Rio Grande in Texas. As the Rio Grande formed the international border, the tract was unambiguously American territory. In July 1906, however, the American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company dug a cutoff to shorten the course of the river, thus bypassing the tract. As a result, the 461 acres (1.87 km2) of the tract (including the former riverbed) became located south of the river. The company was eventually taken to court and fined for the diversion of the river, and the land was agreed to remain American territory, in accordance with the border treaty.[6] In 1929 the town of Río Rico was founded near the tract on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.[6] As the Rio Grande changed its course after floods, the settlement was progressively pushed into the tract.[6] The residents, being mostly of Mexican heritage, accepted the authority of the Mexican government and all parties generally acted as if the tract was Mexican territory. However, the United States never actually relinquished the land, and the issue was re-discovered decades later by a researcher. The Boundary Treaty of 1970 provided for the Horcón Tract to revert to Mexico upon the completion of two new flood control projects. Thus in 1972 the United States officially ceded the tract of land to Mexico.[2] The Board of Immigration Appeals later determined that persons born in the Horcón Tract between 1906 and 1972 could not be deported, effectively if not technically granting citizenship.[7] As a result, a large portion of the population of Rio Rico moved to the United States.[8][9]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Cook 1998, p. 300
- ^ a b McDonald, Laurier B. (2009). "Rio Rico, Texas". Handbook of Texas. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
- ^ Castillo, Mariano (June 20, 2004). "Border town's story has more twists than Rio Grande". Rio Grande Valley Bureau. Archived from the original on February 7, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
- ^ Miller 1985, pp. 13–21
- ^ Rohter, Larry (September 26, 1987). "South of Border Was Once North". New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2009.
- ^ a b c Matter of Cantu 17 Immigration & Naturalization Dec. 190, 190-91 (BIA, 1978)
- ^ Matter of Cantu, 17 Immigration & Naturalization Dec. 190, 194 (BIA 1978)("Either the Government has established, ... that the respondent is an alien, or it has not; if it has not, it is not incumbent upon this Board to go the additional step of determining whether he is also a citizen. That determination can be left to some future date and some other process.")
- ^ Rohter, Larry (September 26, 1987). "South of Border Was Once North". New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
- ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okljAsg5Dy4
Bibliography
- Miller, Tom (1985). On the border: portraits of America's southwestern frontier (1985 ed.). University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-0943-3. - Total pages: 226
- Cook, Scott (1998). Mexican brick culture in the building of Texas, 1800s-1980s (1998 ed.). Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0-89096-792-X. - Total pages: 338