[savedbygrace]

"There are some families who have been here for 4 or 500 years. They didn't cross the border, the border crossed them."

So, is he saying he doesn't recognize the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo?

[the anti-liberal]

He's saying the rule of law doesn't matter to him.

What matters to him the most is the political expediency of the moment.

[Verginius Rufus]

Of course, it was a Democrat, James K. Polk, who brought on the Mexican War when Mexico refused to sell California and the Southwest to the US.

The population of New Mexico Territory in 1850 was 61,547 (including what is now Arizona). I believe that figure excludes "Indians not taxed." Probably all but a small fraction of that 61,547 were already there when New Mexico still belonged to Mexico--but most of them probably were there before 1821 and may have been more "Spanish" than "Mexican."

New Mexico is said to be 43% "Hispanic," but what percentage of that is descended from the people living there in 1848, and what percentage from later immigrants from Mexico, I don't know. New Mexico's population has approximately doubled in the past 40 years, while the US population has grown just over 50%.