"Lawless bands" had often crossed the border on raids into Texas throughout the 1870s. (Hoogenboom, Ari (1995). Rutherford Hayes: Warrior and President. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.)

In June 1877, three months after President Hayes took office, he had granted the Army the power to pursue bandits, even if it required crossing into Mexican territory.

Porfirio Díaz, the Mexican president, had protested the order and sent troops to the border.

The situation had calmed as Díaz and Hayes agreed to jointly pursue bandits and Hayes had agreed not to allow Mexican revolutionaries to raise armies in the United States.

The violence along the border has decreased, and in 1880 Hayes revokes the order allowing pursuit into Mexico.