Río Rico is a village located along the Rio Grande in the Mexican state of

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

. It includes a portion of the Horcón Tract, a narrow piece of land (including former riverbed) that was part of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

until 1977. The Horcón Tract was originally north of the meandering river—and thus part of the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

—until an unauthorized diversion of the river to its north cut it off from the rest of the state in 1906. Río Rico was founded years later, in 1929, and developed as a ''de facto'' Mexican settlement. In 1967, an American geography professor discovered what had happened and it was determined that parts of Río Rico were legally on U.S. territory, making those who were born there American citizens by birthright. The

international border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

was moved under the terms of the

Boundary Treaty of 1970 The Boundary Treaty of 1970 is a treaty between the United States and Mexico that settled all outstanding boundary disputes and uncertainties related to the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) border between them. The most significant dispute re ...

, placing the tract and the village in Mexico, effective in 1977.

History

In 1845, the Rio Grande was established as the border between Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas. The river has many

meanders A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

, which result in "fingers" of land that are nearly surrounded by territory of the other country, such as the Horcón Tract, a finger that was surrounded by the river (and Mexico) except for a narrow connection at its northeast end. (The zig-zag of the river formed a reciprocal tract in Mexico, connected at its southwest end.) In July 1906, the American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company, as a measure to regulate the river's water flow for irrigation purposes, dug a cutoff to shorten the course of the river, thus bypassing the tract. The diversion was unauthorized, and the company was eventually taken to court and was fined $10,000 (about $ in current USD), but the diversion of the river was allowed to stand if the company placed boundary markers. The land was agreed to remain American territory, in accordance with an 1884 border treaty, under the principle of

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

that only natural changes in the course of a river affect borders.
Matter of Cantu
' 17 Immigration & Naturalization Dec. 190, 190-91 ( BIA, 1978) However, the former riverbed dried up rather than forming an oxbow lake, and the company never put up border markers, leaving the tract barely distinguishable from the adjacent Mexican territory. Due to the

prohibition of alcohol Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic be ...

in the U.S., something of a resort destination grew up there during the 1920s and 1930s, with free-flowing liquor and gambling. In 1929 the Mexican village of Río Rico was founded near the tract, and as the Rio Grande changed its course after floods, the settlement progressively moved into it. The residents, being mostly of Mexican heritage, accepted the authority of the Mexican government, and all parties generally acted as if the tract were Mexican territory. The discrepancy was brought to light decades later. The

provided for the Horcón Tract to become part of Mexico upon the completion of two new flood control projects. In 1972 the United States officially ceded the tract of land to Mexico, and it was formally annexed by the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

. The formal handover took place in 1977. After one former resident filed a lawsuit to prevent the

United States Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

from deporting him, the

Board of Immigration Appeals The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) is an administrative appellate body within the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice responsible for reviewing decisions of the U.S. immigration courts and cert ...

ruled that all people born in Río Rico between 1906 and 1972 could claim U.S. citizenship by birthright.''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.''") As a result, a large portion of the village's population moved to the United States proper.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* - Total pages: 226 * - Total pages: 338

External links

Final Handover Documentation

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rio Rico, Tamaulipas Former regions and territories of the United States Populated places in Tamaulipas International territorial disputes of the United States Texas border disputes Mexico–United States border Populated places established in 1970 1970 establishments in Mexico

History

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links