1. By: Hunter Simonson

2. About the Border  The border between the U.S. and Mexico stretches 1,969 miles long.  It also splits the Rio Grande in half down the middle of the river.

3. About the Border Continued  The border runs from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Texas.  It is the most commonly passed international border in the world.  Around 350 million crossings every year.

4. History  People started to show up in the 16 th century because the discovery of silver.  At first the land didn’t belong to either country because the population wasn’t very high.

5. Border Control  The border has the 2 nd highest of both legal and illegal crossing of any border only behind the U.S. and Canada.  It is guarded by over 20 thousand border patrol agents.

6. Border Control Continued  There are about half a million illegal entries into the U.S. per year.  The border patrol is located in the bigger cities along the border.

7. Fun Facts  There are 42 border crossings.  There was a fence dividing the two that was 640 miles long but then was torn down because of costly reasons.  The Rio Grande makes up for over half of the border.  Around 11.8 million people live in the U.S.- Mexico border area.

8. Bibliography  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_%E2 %80%93_United_States_border#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_%E2 %80%93_United_States_border#History  http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/mi grations/bord/intro.html http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/mi grations/bord/intro.html  http://www.migrationinformation.org/feat ure/display.cfm?ID=407 http://www.migrationinformation.org/feat ure/display.cfm?ID=407