in 1830 Mexico banned immigration from the United States why well one reason slavery but for the whole picture we have to look to the history of Texas before Texas was a US state and its own nation it was part of Mexico's northern state of Coahuila eat a hoss but the region was sparsely populated invulnerable to Native American tribes seeking to reclaim the land so in the early 1820s Mexico opened its northern territory to some American immigrants with the idea that the Americans would protect the region from falling under Native American control to entice American settlers the government offered cheap land grants in 1823 stephen f austin became the first to receive a grant and the right to settle 300 families others soon followed in exchange the settlers agreed to speak spanish convert to Catholicism become Mexican citizens and abstain from keeping slaves but the Americans weren't so good at holding up their end of the bargain with little oversight from the Mexican government most remained Protestant spoke English and didn't give a hoot about Mexican law with the cotton industry booming cheap farmland and chaos attracted droves of cotton farmers and cotton farms meant slaves by 1829 Mexico realized it had a real problem the American population in Tejas had swelled to nearly 20,000 making it practically impossible for the government to enforce the law Mexico rightly feared it would lose Tejas to the Americans so on April 6th 1830 in a bid to maintain control and keep slavery out of its country Mexico passed a law intended to curb the flood of immigration from the United States to Tejas it didn't work the Americans kept coming and the law further strained Mexico's delicate relationship with the settlers then to make matters worse in 1835 Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana repealed the 1824 next Constitution he moved to centralize Mexican politics stripping Tejas and the other Mexican states of their right to self-govern and all hell broke loose the senator saw this attack on their rights as the final straw their only option rebellion but Santa Ana was prepared to put any dissent down and violently in early 1836 he marched his troops north remember the Alamo On February 23rd 1836 Santa Ana launched a 13 day siege on the settlers Catholic mission turned fortress when he finally penetrated the walls he slaughtered nearly every person inside ending the battle but not the war the settlers called in reinforcements from the States promising land and free passage one month later General Sam Houston launched a surprise attack at San Jacinto capturing Santa Ana and forcing him to sign away Mexican ownership of Texas the newly independent Texans were psyched as an independent entity they would be free to join the United States where slavery was legal but oh the irony slavery which had greatly influenced their bid for independence now practically extinguished any chances they had for statehood because back in the US Congress was grappling with the spread of slavery as their nation expanded westward annexation of Texas would bring in another slave state as Congress debated how to maintain the balance Texas remained in a state of limbo for nearly ten years Texas struggled as an independent nation suffering from economic instability and border disputes with Mexico finally in 1845 Texas was admitted to the Union but it was short-lived 15 years later Texas would secede from the US as the country headed towards a civil war over the issue of slavery you you