With the 1820 Spanish Constitution, the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico was threatened. Royalist military officer Agustín de Iturbide made an alliance with Guerrero, and under the Plan de Iguala declaring Mexico's independence, which was achieved in 1821. The formation of the new Mexican state initially involved a constituent congress. Ramos Arizpe returned to Mexico in 1822, when opposition to Iturbide was coalescing. He was "instrumental in mobilizing the provinces and drafting the Plan of Casa Mata," which called for the overthrow of Iturbide. With the ouster of Iturbide, Mexican elites created a second Constituent Congress to write a constitution. The former colony was not constituted as a sovereign state but the former colonial regional districts considered themselves the units to form a new constitution. Ramos Arizpe was chosen as the chair of the committee to write the new constitution. In less than two weeks in 1824, the committee drafted the "Acta Constitutiva", which was the founding legislation. An issue was the extent to which the Mexican states had sovereignty. When politics in Mexico post-Iturbide were coalesced around membership in different organizations, the Scottish Rite ("Escocés") and the York Rite ("yorkino"), Ramos Arizpe became affiliated with the York Rite Masons, who were less selective than the Escocés and had a populist following. The Yorkinos were encouraged by the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett and he has been blamed for much political strife in the early post-independence period with his meddling. Ramos Arizpe resigned from the Yorkinos in 1826 split with his fellow Masons in 1826, earning himself enemies for his defection. He served as justice minister for Presidents Guadalupe Victoria, Manuel Gómez Pedraza, Valentín Gómez Farías and for Antonio López de Santa Anna. The city of Ramos Arizpe in Coahuila is named after him. In 2004 Clio TV showed a documentary "El país roto, Las guerras de Miguel Ramos Arizpe" that was directed by Antonino Isordia.