Chasing Treaty Promises

Abstract

In their quest for housing throughout history and still today, Latinas/os continuously witness the disregard of international and domestic law. A survey of the legal methods various municipalities employ in seeking to eliminate Latinas/os from their communities, exemplifies how alleged legal rules advance power relationships in the United States.' Whether one chooses to study the current anti2 immigrant ordinances confronting Latinas/os across the United States or to go back in history and examine the effects of the United States' war against the Mexican Republic in 1846, 3 an analysis of the property law jurisprudence from either period will show a series of entangled conflicts of legal doctrines. Anti-immigrant ordinances, for example, are difficult to reconcile with federal laws that govern both entry and removal from the United States or the innumerable types of immigration statuses available to non-citizens. 4 Additionally, these anti-immigrant ordinances violate state laws that guard against indiscriminate treatment and equally contradict longstanding property rights. In some instances, the ordinances go so far as to conflict with state constitutions that protect all persons within their geographical borders. 5 Unfortunately, these types of legal inconsistencies and conflicts facing Latinas/os are not new. Following the United States-Mexican War of 1846, the United States made false promises to individuals of Mexican, Spanish, and Native