KPBS
April 29, 2013
By Adrian Florido
SAN DIEGO — In 2008, the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego replaced a flimsy fence with a tall, thick one at Friendship Park, a spot where families separated by the border have long come to talk through the fence. They built a gate into it to allow for maintenance on both sides. But it had never been opened, so it rusted shut.
Jim Brown, an architect, negotiated to get Border Patrol to open the gate for the first time ever this Sunday, just for a few minutes. They agreed.
“I came out with some WD-40," he said. "It was kind of comical — a little tiny can from a convenience store, spraying it on the hinges. No, it would not budge. So Border Patrol came out with some torches and what not, and popped it open.”
It just so happened that Sunday, Luis Angulo had come to meet his 5-year-old daughter for the first time — through the fence. She was born in Mexico. He lives in San Diego.
“My sister, she’s a lawyer in Mexico and she told me 'hey, you can try to see your daughter from here,'" he said, as the little girl stuck her fingers through the fence's tight mesh.
Bronwyn Ingram, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s fiancée, was standing nearby. She was there to help swing the gate open, and she said stories like Angulo's show that the ties that bind border cities are stronger than the fence that separates them.
“When you come here and you spend time, and you see the families talking together, putting their fingers through the fence to touch each other, it’s really moving," she said.
As crowds gathered on both sides of the fence, Ingram and Filner moved toward the gate. Brown removed a large steel beam lock and swung the gate open. The faces of people on the other side, usually obscured by the fence’s tight mesh, suddenly became clear. Cheers erupted on both sides.
Mayor Filner called Luis Angulo toward the opening. He hesitated, but then his daughter walked through, looking up at him. He picked her up and gave her giant hug.
A few minutes later, two Border Patrol agents secured the gate again. Brown said the Border Patrol had installed a greasing mechanism to keep the gate from rusting shut again. He said he hopes that means opening the gate in a gesture of binational friendship will become a more common occurrence.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/apr/29/rusted-gate-border-fence-opens-first-time/
Showing posts with label Friendship Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friendship Park. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Border Patrol promises consistent access to Friendship Park
San Diego Untion Tribune
October 6, 2012
by Jordan England-Nelson
October 6, 2012
by Jordan England-Nelson
IMPERIAL BEACH — The Border Patrol on Saturday made a new commitment to providing consistent access to Friendship Park, a concrete plaza split by the U.S.-Mexico border fence where friends and families on either side have gathered for generations.
Friends of Friendship Park, a coalition that has pushed for greater access and more regular hours of operation at the site, praised the new arrangement.
Access had been intermittent since 2009, when ground was broken for a secondary fence extending from Smuggler’s Gulch to the sea, said the Rev. John Fanestil, a Methodist pastor and a spokesman for the coalition. He said Border Patrol agents were not consistently on call to let visitors inside, leading to an “atmosphere of uncertainty” which meant that “for all intents and purposes, the park was not accessible in any meaningful way.”
Border Patrol spokesman Jerry Conlin said the park was never officially closed, but that “enforcement takes priority” and agents were not always available to let people in. Rotating staff will now be available Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Some groups have objected to Friendship Park because they see it as a way for undocumented immigrants to visit their families without having to return to Mexico. Others object to what the park has come to represent.
Peter Nunez, chairman of the Center for Immigration Studies, a research organization that calls for less immigration, said he has nothing against families coming together at the site. But he criticized the way immigrant advocates have exploited the park.
“The fence symbolizes in their minds the absurdity of immigration law,” Nunez said. “But the park was never meant to symbolize anything about immigration. It’s about friendship between two neighboring countries.”
Friendship Park came about after First Lady Pat Nixon’s 1971 inauguration of Border Field State Park, where she told crowds on either side of the barbed-wire demarcation line: “I hate to see a fence anywhere.”
Fanestil has been visiting Friendship Park for years to administer Sunday Communion. He used to pass wafers through chinks in the fence and into the mouths of congregants on the other side, resulting in a distinct display of transnational transubstantiation.
Steel mesh was added to the primary fence earlier this year to prevent people from passing objects from one side to the other.
Fanestil, who plans on resuming border sacraments today, said he is looking for ways to continue his two-nations-under-God take on the holy rites. He is reaching out to a Mexican minister interested in simultaneously performing the service on the Mexican side of the fence. They even want to use the same loaf of bread, splitting it beforehand and taking one half to each side.
“Newcomers say it [the mesh] reminds them of visiting someone in jail,” Fanestil said. “But you can still strike up a conversation and make friends. That’s why the park is named that way.”
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Border Fence Into Pacific Ocean To Be Rebuilt
KPBS
November 3, 2011
By Ruxandra Guidi
SAN DIEGO — The "surf fence" runs 300-feet into the Pacific Ocean. It was originally built between 1993 and 1994 as a barrier to illegal border crossers and smugglers.
The new fence will look essentially the same: Metal pipes, 6-inches in diameter, rising out of the sand, with 4-inches in between. But it is designed to stay in good shape for as long as 30 years.
"The fencing is just another tool that we have," said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Michael Jimenez, referring to its design. "It helps to slow down the entry of these people to give our agents a chance to make an arrest. Because a fence alone isn't going to stop people from coming in."
But the fence is designed to be wide enough for fish and other wildlife to make it back and forth across the border.
Rebuilding efforts in this and other parts of the Southwestern border fence have been delayed over the years, due to environmental impact assessments for things like land use, geology, and protected species.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/nov/03/mexico-illegal-immigration-tijuana-san-diego/
November 3, 2011
By Ruxandra Guidi
SAN DIEGO — The "surf fence" runs 300-feet into the Pacific Ocean. It was originally built between 1993 and 1994 as a barrier to illegal border crossers and smugglers.
The new fence will look essentially the same: Metal pipes, 6-inches in diameter, rising out of the sand, with 4-inches in between. But it is designed to stay in good shape for as long as 30 years.
"The fencing is just another tool that we have," said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Michael Jimenez, referring to its design. "It helps to slow down the entry of these people to give our agents a chance to make an arrest. Because a fence alone isn't going to stop people from coming in."
But the fence is designed to be wide enough for fish and other wildlife to make it back and forth across the border.
Rebuilding efforts in this and other parts of the Southwestern border fence have been delayed over the years, due to environmental impact assessments for things like land use, geology, and protected species.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/nov/03/mexico-illegal-immigration-tijuana-san-diego/
Monday, August 22, 2011
Friendship Park marks 40th anniversary
Sign on San Diego
August 20, 2011
by Debbi Baker
Dozens of people gathered on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border Saturday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of historic Friendship Park.
The small piece of land, part of Border Field State Park in the Tijuana River Valley adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, was dedicated Aug. 18, 1971, by then-first lady Pat Nixon.
It was long a place where families came together to meet, greet and touch each other through holes in the fence. That ended in 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security built a wrought-iron barrier and strictly limited access.
Enrique Morones, founder and president of the immigrant rights organization Border Angels — who wants to see the area returned to the way it used to be — addressed the crowd in English and in Spanish.
He pointed to a large picture of Nixon affixed to the fence that was also adorned with sunflowers. The first lady is smiling and reaching over the border shaking hands with a man holding a small boy
“As you can see, when Pat Nixon was saying hello, there was no fence, there was no wall,” said Morones, who advocates for an open border. “And one thing she said was, ‘May there never be a wall between these two great countries.’ ”
Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, who also addressed the assembly, gestured toward the deep blue ocean and said the beauty of the area was juxtaposed by the ugliness of the metal barrier.
“We have to get rid of this so we can touch each other, so we can see each other, so we can sing to each other, so we can dance with each other,” said Filner, a candidate for San Diego mayor.
“I want to quote another president in a different context, ‘Mr. President, tear down this wall,’” the congressman said to loud applause, echoing Ronald Reagan’s famous speech at the Berlin Wall.
History professor Christine Moore, who grew up in Imperial Beach, said she remembered when families would sit by the fence and have picnics.
“I’d like to see the park come back to life, Moore said.
The issue became particularly personal to her when one of her most promising students was deported four years ago. She said the girl came to the country with her family when she was 2 and that she considered herself an American.
Carlos Santos, another speaker at the event, immigrated legally to the country 10 years ago with his wife and oldest son.
He turned toward the people in Mexico who peered through the mesh of the fence and told the story of how he came to the park a few years ago and was able to hug his mother for the first time in years. He said that moment meant everything to him.
“Don’t give up hope,” he said. “Someday people will be able to do that again.”
The celebration included salsa dancing, remarks by Tijuana Councilwoman Maria Luisa Sanchez and other Mexican officials and a moment of silence to commemorate those who have died crossing the border.
A tree was planted in the same spot where Nixon had planted one 40 years ago that was now long gone.
Morones said he was working with the Border Patrol to make the area less restrictive and that the two groups had made some positive progress.
“We believe friendship has no border,” Morones said.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/20/access-issue-key-as-friendship-park-marks-40th/
August 20, 2011
by Debbi Baker
Dozens of people gathered on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border Saturday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of historic Friendship Park.
The small piece of land, part of Border Field State Park in the Tijuana River Valley adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, was dedicated Aug. 18, 1971, by then-first lady Pat Nixon.
It was long a place where families came together to meet, greet and touch each other through holes in the fence. That ended in 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security built a wrought-iron barrier and strictly limited access.
Enrique Morones, founder and president of the immigrant rights organization Border Angels — who wants to see the area returned to the way it used to be — addressed the crowd in English and in Spanish.
He pointed to a large picture of Nixon affixed to the fence that was also adorned with sunflowers. The first lady is smiling and reaching over the border shaking hands with a man holding a small boy
“As you can see, when Pat Nixon was saying hello, there was no fence, there was no wall,” said Morones, who advocates for an open border. “And one thing she said was, ‘May there never be a wall between these two great countries.’ ”
Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, who also addressed the assembly, gestured toward the deep blue ocean and said the beauty of the area was juxtaposed by the ugliness of the metal barrier.
“We have to get rid of this so we can touch each other, so we can see each other, so we can sing to each other, so we can dance with each other,” said Filner, a candidate for San Diego mayor.
“I want to quote another president in a different context, ‘Mr. President, tear down this wall,’” the congressman said to loud applause, echoing Ronald Reagan’s famous speech at the Berlin Wall.
History professor Christine Moore, who grew up in Imperial Beach, said she remembered when families would sit by the fence and have picnics.
“I’d like to see the park come back to life, Moore said.
The issue became particularly personal to her when one of her most promising students was deported four years ago. She said the girl came to the country with her family when she was 2 and that she considered herself an American.
Carlos Santos, another speaker at the event, immigrated legally to the country 10 years ago with his wife and oldest son.
He turned toward the people in Mexico who peered through the mesh of the fence and told the story of how he came to the park a few years ago and was able to hug his mother for the first time in years. He said that moment meant everything to him.
“Don’t give up hope,” he said. “Someday people will be able to do that again.”
The celebration included salsa dancing, remarks by Tijuana Councilwoman Maria Luisa Sanchez and other Mexican officials and a moment of silence to commemorate those who have died crossing the border.
A tree was planted in the same spot where Nixon had planted one 40 years ago that was now long gone.
Morones said he was working with the Border Patrol to make the area less restrictive and that the two groups had made some positive progress.
“We believe friendship has no border,” Morones said.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/20/access-issue-key-as-friendship-park-marks-40th/
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friendship Park At U.S.-Mexico Border Turns 40
KPBS
August 18, 2011
by Jill Replogle
SAN DIEGO — On August 18, 1971, then-first lady Pat Nixon reached her hand toward a barbed wire fence separating the U.S.-Mexico border and greeted residents on the other side.
The event happened during the inauguration of Friendship Park, which butts up against the border fence south of San Diego. But in recent years, the park has become a subject of controversy.
A triple-layer fence — built in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks —now runs through the park, making cross-border handshakes impossible.
Jamie Gates, one of the founders of the organization Friends of Friendship Park, said the fence has ruined the bi-national nature of the park.
“In the process of building the new fence, they really destroyed what has for decades and decades and decades been a place where families have gathered,” Gates said.
The group is working with U.S. border officials on a redesign that would allow for cross-border gatherings without compromising security. The plan features a 60-foot retractable gate, which could be opened and closed by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Friends of Friendship Park will celebrate the park’s 40th anniversary on Saturday. Activities will include a cross-border salsa lesson, a bi-national music jam session, and testimonies from families who have used the park as a meeting place.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/aug/18/friendship-park-turns-forty/
August 18, 2011
by Jill Replogle
SAN DIEGO — On August 18, 1971, then-first lady Pat Nixon reached her hand toward a barbed wire fence separating the U.S.-Mexico border and greeted residents on the other side.
The event happened during the inauguration of Friendship Park, which butts up against the border fence south of San Diego. But in recent years, the park has become a subject of controversy.
A triple-layer fence — built in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks —now runs through the park, making cross-border handshakes impossible.
Jamie Gates, one of the founders of the organization Friends of Friendship Park, said the fence has ruined the bi-national nature of the park.
“In the process of building the new fence, they really destroyed what has for decades and decades and decades been a place where families have gathered,” Gates said.
The group is working with U.S. border officials on a redesign that would allow for cross-border gatherings without compromising security. The plan features a 60-foot retractable gate, which could be opened and closed by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Friends of Friendship Park will celebrate the park’s 40th anniversary on Saturday. Activities will include a cross-border salsa lesson, a bi-national music jam session, and testimonies from families who have used the park as a meeting place.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/aug/18/friendship-park-turns-forty/
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Park redesign could relieve tensions at US-Mexico border
UPI
April 14, 2011
by Beth Elderkin
A possible redesign of Friendship Park, a small patch of land separated by two eight-foot high black metal fences on the national border between San Diego, Calif. and Tijuana, Mexico, has become the center of a heated international debate.
Dedicated in 1971 to bi-national unity between the United States and Mexico by former first lady Pat Nixon, the small section of protected Border Field State Park is officially referred to as Friendship Circle, but more commonly known as Friendship Park.The area has sparked tense cross-border conflicts between groups who wish to open the park for full bi-national access, and U.S. Border patrol, which prioritizes national security.
Over the past five years, increased security by the United States Border Patrol has restricted park access to U.S. residents and limited cross-cultural contact.
But after years of cross-cultural tension, a compromise on a redesign of the park appears to be within reach. In February, Border Patrol agreed to consider a design that would create more open spaces, but still serve security needs.
"(The redesign) doesn't make the park feel like you're walking into a prison," said Jill Holslin, a member of Friends of Friendship Park, one of the groups advocating more open space.
Friendship Park was once a frequently-visited spot by people living in the U.S. who wanted to communicate with friends and family in Mexico. People gathered on both sides of the fence to share picnics, sometimes even “sneaking tamales across the fence,” Holslin said.
A 1994 measure limited access to the border fence, but it wasn't until 2006 that Friendship Park was severely impacted. That's when Pres. George W. Bush approved the Secure Fence Act, which increased border security and initialized the construction of a secondary fence. That fence, completed in 2009, was built about 100 feet away from the original border fence, creating a buffer space that prohibits cross-border access from Friendship Park, which lies between the two fences.
“[Before], it was minimal problems or obstacles as far as border patrol or access to the area,” said Daniel Watman of Border Encuentro, which is fighting for increased park access. “When they started bringing in the secondary wall, that’s when it created quite an obstacle for us.”
Ever since the secondary fence was completed, access to the main park area is only allowed on the weekends between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and only 25 to 30 people are allowed inside at a time, for a maximum of 30 minutes. Friendship Park is reachable through Border Field State Park by car, or via a 40-minute walk along Imperial Beach.
Physical contact is prohibited and border patrol officers have the option to restrain suspicious people within 100 feet of the fence. Border patrol agent Ronnie Harden said the primary reason is to prevent items from being passed through the slats and over the fence.
“It’s so easy for them to pass things that are contraband or things that can be used on either side, like illegal documents,” he said.
Park access advocacy groups, including Friends of Friendship Park, No Border Wall and Border Encuentro, are working for increased access to the park, particularly for people who want to communicate with family and friends on the other side of the border fence.
According to Border Patrol Public Affairs Office supervisor Steven Pitts, the park redesign, if approved, could begin construction as early as June, and would take approximately three to six months to complete.
The changes to Friendship Park could include an area around the boundary that could expand to up to 60 feet, depending on the size of the crowd at any given event, Watman said.
The idea of this is “to open up the entrance to this kind of no-man’s land between the two lands,” said Public Art and Architecture architect and Friendship Park designer James Brown.
U.S. visitors would be able to walk right up to the fence and interact with those on the other side. This would be made possible through a metal reinforced mesh fence. The mesh would be tight enough to make physical contact impossible, said Border Patrol Public Affairs Office representative Justin De La Torre.
Harden, who works the midnight to 8 a.m. shift, said the secondary fence and added border security is necessary to the safety of the U.S. national border; especially late at night when illegal border crossings are more likely to occur.
“People who cross at this time of night aren’t trying to see their families. They’re trying to get somewhere,” he said.
Holslin agrees that cross-border security is important in maintaining order along the border:
“We are not working against the Border Patrol," she said. "We want to work with them"
Holslin said increasing park access could actually help improve security along the border, since a higher number of visitors would prevent drug cartels from overtaking the area and increasing crime.
Watman said a redesigned Friendship Park is a way to not only maintain a safe environment, but do so in a way that symbolizes the bi-national friendship former first lady Nixon celebrated 40 years ago.
“I don’t feel like it’s enforcement versus friendship. I believe they both can be present,” he said. “They kind of both need to be present.”
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/1969/12/31/Park-redesign-could-relieve-tensions-at-US-Mexico-border/UPIU-9751301078945/
April 14, 2011
by Beth Elderkin
A possible redesign of Friendship Park, a small patch of land separated by two eight-foot high black metal fences on the national border between San Diego, Calif. and Tijuana, Mexico, has become the center of a heated international debate.
Dedicated in 1971 to bi-national unity between the United States and Mexico by former first lady Pat Nixon, the small section of protected Border Field State Park is officially referred to as Friendship Circle, but more commonly known as Friendship Park.The area has sparked tense cross-border conflicts between groups who wish to open the park for full bi-national access, and U.S. Border patrol, which prioritizes national security.
Over the past five years, increased security by the United States Border Patrol has restricted park access to U.S. residents and limited cross-cultural contact.
But after years of cross-cultural tension, a compromise on a redesign of the park appears to be within reach. In February, Border Patrol agreed to consider a design that would create more open spaces, but still serve security needs.
"(The redesign) doesn't make the park feel like you're walking into a prison," said Jill Holslin, a member of Friends of Friendship Park, one of the groups advocating more open space.
Friendship Park was once a frequently-visited spot by people living in the U.S. who wanted to communicate with friends and family in Mexico. People gathered on both sides of the fence to share picnics, sometimes even “sneaking tamales across the fence,” Holslin said.
A 1994 measure limited access to the border fence, but it wasn't until 2006 that Friendship Park was severely impacted. That's when Pres. George W. Bush approved the Secure Fence Act, which increased border security and initialized the construction of a secondary fence. That fence, completed in 2009, was built about 100 feet away from the original border fence, creating a buffer space that prohibits cross-border access from Friendship Park, which lies between the two fences.
“[Before], it was minimal problems or obstacles as far as border patrol or access to the area,” said Daniel Watman of Border Encuentro, which is fighting for increased park access. “When they started bringing in the secondary wall, that’s when it created quite an obstacle for us.”
Ever since the secondary fence was completed, access to the main park area is only allowed on the weekends between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and only 25 to 30 people are allowed inside at a time, for a maximum of 30 minutes. Friendship Park is reachable through Border Field State Park by car, or via a 40-minute walk along Imperial Beach.
Physical contact is prohibited and border patrol officers have the option to restrain suspicious people within 100 feet of the fence. Border patrol agent Ronnie Harden said the primary reason is to prevent items from being passed through the slats and over the fence.
“It’s so easy for them to pass things that are contraband or things that can be used on either side, like illegal documents,” he said.
Park access advocacy groups, including Friends of Friendship Park, No Border Wall and Border Encuentro, are working for increased access to the park, particularly for people who want to communicate with family and friends on the other side of the border fence.
According to Border Patrol Public Affairs Office supervisor Steven Pitts, the park redesign, if approved, could begin construction as early as June, and would take approximately three to six months to complete.
The changes to Friendship Park could include an area around the boundary that could expand to up to 60 feet, depending on the size of the crowd at any given event, Watman said.
The idea of this is “to open up the entrance to this kind of no-man’s land between the two lands,” said Public Art and Architecture architect and Friendship Park designer James Brown.
U.S. visitors would be able to walk right up to the fence and interact with those on the other side. This would be made possible through a metal reinforced mesh fence. The mesh would be tight enough to make physical contact impossible, said Border Patrol Public Affairs Office representative Justin De La Torre.
Harden, who works the midnight to 8 a.m. shift, said the secondary fence and added border security is necessary to the safety of the U.S. national border; especially late at night when illegal border crossings are more likely to occur.
“People who cross at this time of night aren’t trying to see their families. They’re trying to get somewhere,” he said.
Holslin agrees that cross-border security is important in maintaining order along the border:
“We are not working against the Border Patrol," she said. "We want to work with them"
Holslin said increasing park access could actually help improve security along the border, since a higher number of visitors would prevent drug cartels from overtaking the area and increasing crime.
Watman said a redesigned Friendship Park is a way to not only maintain a safe environment, but do so in a way that symbolizes the bi-national friendship former first lady Nixon celebrated 40 years ago.
“I don’t feel like it’s enforcement versus friendship. I believe they both can be present,” he said. “They kind of both need to be present.”
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/1969/12/31/Park-redesign-could-relieve-tensions-at-US-Mexico-border/UPIU-9751301078945/
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Finagling Access to Friendship Park
Voice of San Diego
February 27, 2011
by Adrian Florido
For 38 years, Friendship Park was a symbol of amity between Mexico and the United States, despite the fence that separated the two countries and suggested otherwise.
But in 2009, the park that straddled San Diego and Tijuana — where families and friends separated by the fence came to chat, kiss, or graze cheeks — was closed, the casualty of a second fence the U.S. government built to provide an added layer of border security.
Since then, advocates have been pushing to regain access, with only limited success.
But in the last two weeks, they have won their largest concessions yet from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which this summer will begin replacing the primary border fence, now rusted and deteriorating, with a brand new, taller one. The agency has agreed to revise its original designs for the project and allow visitors closer access to the fence over a wider area than originally planned.
Friendship Park, while hardly a park anymore, will be a little friendlier.
"It's impossible for this park, when it's finished, to be beautiful. It won't be," said Jim Brown, an architect who designed an alternative proposal to the Border Patrol's, and who, along with a group of advocates, presented it to agency officials. "But it's going to be a super important symbol amid all this militarization of the border."
The Border Patrol's proposal for access to Friendship Park called for not much more than the current setup. Since last year, the agency has allowed limited access to the border fence on Saturdays and Sundays, letting visitors go through a gate in the new outer fence and enter a corral-like area that gets them within a few feet of the primary fence to talk to people on the other side. But it does not allow them to be close enough to touch or kiss.
The agency has agreed to some of Brown's design proposals, which would allow visitors to walk right up to the fence across about a 100-foot area, depending on whether Border Patrol officials are concerned about a security threat.
To social activists, the reinforced border fence is a symbol of division, enmity, and loved ones torn apart by immigration status. For the Border Patrol and enforcement advocates, it represents security and the containment of illegal crossers and illicit contraband.
Those two perspectives are hard to reconcile, especially amid the constant politicking that surrounds border issues. And if anything, the tug and pull over access to Friendship Park has reaffirmed that notion.
The negotiations have been a give and take. More access in one place has meant more security in another.
The government's original plan for the new fence, for example, was to build it of thick metal pylons with gaps between them, enough space to stick a hand or an arm through. Visitors on the American side would have to stay behind a shoulder high fence a few feet away, so as to prevent them from passing contraband.
But that dashed advocates' hope that families and friends could come together to talk up close, to touch, as they'd always done before.
"We wanted people to be able to have more of a private conversation than the public one they would have if they had to talk across a wide gap," Brown said.
The Border Patrol agreed to allow it. But in exchange, it will build a different kind of fence — a tight mesh one with holes so small that items won't fit through. The agency also plans to install a canopy overhead that will prevent things from being tossed over.
"Our priorities are a little bit different," said Kelly Good, the Border Patrol agent who has negotiated the design with advocates. "Our first priority is security of that area, our second priority is the safety of our agents, our third priority is to make this a place where people want to go and visit. Our last priority is their first priority."
The government's plan would also only have allowed visitors to approach a section of the border fence roughly 50 feet wide. They would have been contained to that area by a fenced-in corral similar to the one that's there now.
Advocates wanted to make a wider stretch accessible, so families could spread out. So the agency agreed to do away with the corral.
But it still wanted the ability to restrict access, or grant it, depending on the so-called security threat level on any given day.
On days when threat levels are perceived to be low, visitors might be allowed to spread out across a 100-foot section of the fence. On riskier days, when agents want to keep a close eye on people, they might only allow access to 40 feet. Brown designed an adjustable barrier system similar to the knee-high ropes that keep visitors from getting too close to paintings at museums. Agents will be able to move the ropes depending on how wide a section of the fence they want to make available.
But some things could not be negotiated, like access to the obelisk monument that First Lady Pat Nixon dedicated as a symbol of friendship between the two countries in 1971, as a reassurance that despite the fence, good will remained. The monument currently straddles both sides of the fence, but the Border Patrol's redesign will leave it on the Mexican side.
That's because the new fence will not be built directly on the international line. When it replaces the existing one, it will move a few feet north. Visitors standing at the fence on the Mexican side will technically be on United States soil.
The Border Patrol wants to be able to perform maintenance on both sides of the fence. Currently, it can only maintain the American side, because to access the other, agents would have to step on Mexican soil. Moving the fence a few feet to the north will allow them to go through a gate and make needed repairs to the other side without technically entering Mexico.
"We're the only ones that will maintain it," Good said, because it is not Mexico's fence.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/survival/article_e947d334-42bb-11e0-b13b-001cc4c03286.html
February 27, 2011
by Adrian Florido
For 38 years, Friendship Park was a symbol of amity between Mexico and the United States, despite the fence that separated the two countries and suggested otherwise.
But in 2009, the park that straddled San Diego and Tijuana — where families and friends separated by the fence came to chat, kiss, or graze cheeks — was closed, the casualty of a second fence the U.S. government built to provide an added layer of border security.
Since then, advocates have been pushing to regain access, with only limited success.
But in the last two weeks, they have won their largest concessions yet from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which this summer will begin replacing the primary border fence, now rusted and deteriorating, with a brand new, taller one. The agency has agreed to revise its original designs for the project and allow visitors closer access to the fence over a wider area than originally planned.
Friendship Park, while hardly a park anymore, will be a little friendlier.
"It's impossible for this park, when it's finished, to be beautiful. It won't be," said Jim Brown, an architect who designed an alternative proposal to the Border Patrol's, and who, along with a group of advocates, presented it to agency officials. "But it's going to be a super important symbol amid all this militarization of the border."
The Border Patrol's proposal for access to Friendship Park called for not much more than the current setup. Since last year, the agency has allowed limited access to the border fence on Saturdays and Sundays, letting visitors go through a gate in the new outer fence and enter a corral-like area that gets them within a few feet of the primary fence to talk to people on the other side. But it does not allow them to be close enough to touch or kiss.
The agency has agreed to some of Brown's design proposals, which would allow visitors to walk right up to the fence across about a 100-foot area, depending on whether Border Patrol officials are concerned about a security threat.
To social activists, the reinforced border fence is a symbol of division, enmity, and loved ones torn apart by immigration status. For the Border Patrol and enforcement advocates, it represents security and the containment of illegal crossers and illicit contraband.
Those two perspectives are hard to reconcile, especially amid the constant politicking that surrounds border issues. And if anything, the tug and pull over access to Friendship Park has reaffirmed that notion.
The negotiations have been a give and take. More access in one place has meant more security in another.
The government's original plan for the new fence, for example, was to build it of thick metal pylons with gaps between them, enough space to stick a hand or an arm through. Visitors on the American side would have to stay behind a shoulder high fence a few feet away, so as to prevent them from passing contraband.
But that dashed advocates' hope that families and friends could come together to talk up close, to touch, as they'd always done before.
"We wanted people to be able to have more of a private conversation than the public one they would have if they had to talk across a wide gap," Brown said.
The Border Patrol agreed to allow it. But in exchange, it will build a different kind of fence — a tight mesh one with holes so small that items won't fit through. The agency also plans to install a canopy overhead that will prevent things from being tossed over.
"Our priorities are a little bit different," said Kelly Good, the Border Patrol agent who has negotiated the design with advocates. "Our first priority is security of that area, our second priority is the safety of our agents, our third priority is to make this a place where people want to go and visit. Our last priority is their first priority."
The government's plan would also only have allowed visitors to approach a section of the border fence roughly 50 feet wide. They would have been contained to that area by a fenced-in corral similar to the one that's there now.
Advocates wanted to make a wider stretch accessible, so families could spread out. So the agency agreed to do away with the corral.
But it still wanted the ability to restrict access, or grant it, depending on the so-called security threat level on any given day.
On days when threat levels are perceived to be low, visitors might be allowed to spread out across a 100-foot section of the fence. On riskier days, when agents want to keep a close eye on people, they might only allow access to 40 feet. Brown designed an adjustable barrier system similar to the knee-high ropes that keep visitors from getting too close to paintings at museums. Agents will be able to move the ropes depending on how wide a section of the fence they want to make available.
But some things could not be negotiated, like access to the obelisk monument that First Lady Pat Nixon dedicated as a symbol of friendship between the two countries in 1971, as a reassurance that despite the fence, good will remained. The monument currently straddles both sides of the fence, but the Border Patrol's redesign will leave it on the Mexican side.
That's because the new fence will not be built directly on the international line. When it replaces the existing one, it will move a few feet north. Visitors standing at the fence on the Mexican side will technically be on United States soil.
The Border Patrol wants to be able to perform maintenance on both sides of the fence. Currently, it can only maintain the American side, because to access the other, agents would have to step on Mexican soil. Moving the fence a few feet to the north will allow them to go through a gate and make needed repairs to the other side without technically entering Mexico.
"We're the only ones that will maintain it," Good said, because it is not Mexico's fence.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/survival/article_e947d334-42bb-11e0-b13b-001cc4c03286.html
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Border Patrol Plans Three New Projects in Border Field State Park
Imperial Beach Patch
February 11, 2011
by Greg Graziosi
http://cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/border_security/ti/ti_docs/sector/san_diego/circle_draft.ctt/circle_draft.pdf
http://imperialbeach.patch.com/articles/border-patrol-plans-three-new-projects-in-border-field-state-park
February 11, 2011
by Greg Graziosi
The Border Patrol held an open house Wednesday evening at the Marina Vista Community Center to exhibit three renovation projects slated to begin this year.
Greg Gephart, program manager for tactical infrastructure for the U.S. Border Patrol, was on-hand to explain the nature of the projects, the goals desired and the background, environmental and design details of the undertakings.
If the changes are approved, the Border Patrol will begin a proposal period in March, then sign deals with private contractors for Friendship Park projects by April.
The Border Patrol wants to see construction for all three projects start this summer.
The Replacement of the Friendship Park Pedestrian Border Fence
The Friendship Park project drew a great deal of attention at the open house, as it directly affects visitors to the park, and in part due to a press conference held by the Friends of Friendship Park on the lawn of the community center Wednesday evening to promote an alternative re-design.
The proposed changes to Friendship Park—a binational park where people on both sides of the border can meet one another—centers around the re-construction of the pedestrian border fence, which the Border Patrol said no longer meets security standards.
This fence will be replaced with 965 feet of bollard fence on either side of Friendship Circle, the area of the park where those on the American and Mexican sides of the park can get closest to each other.
A bollard fence design is a series of large capped poles positioned tightly together to block anyone from squeezing through, but at the same time not make a solid fence, which can easier to climb.
At Friendship Circle, a 50-foot picket fence with mesh between the fences will be installed, allowing for a clear line of sight between friends and family visiting at the circle.
Other changes include removing an adjustable, wrought-iron fence in the walkway area, allowing for less constricted access for people entering Friendship Circle from the Mexican side and installing a canopy over Friendship Circle.
Replacement of the San Diego Surf Fence
The surf fence replacement project will be directly tied into the Friendship Park project, with construction on both being slated for June of this year.
The San Diego surf fence, which runs along the border and 320 feet into the Pacific Ocean, was built between 1993 and 1994 and consists of steel pipes driven into the ground.
Over the past several years, corrosion and vandalism have brought sections of the fence into various states of disrepair, the Border Patrol said. The new fence they propose would be a similar pole design but made of metals that will last longer than steel. The fence will be bollard style, which will allow some marine creatures to pass through the fence without trouble, but still restrict illegal crossings. To ensure dredging or land reclamation is not necessary, the project will be carried out from a barge stationed just off shore.
The Border Patrol has listed its intentions to be environmentally conscious during this project, citing it will obtain appropriate permits from federal environmental authorities and plan to conduct impact assessments for things like land use, geology, cultural and historical resources and protected species.
The Addition of an All-Weather Road at Bunker Hill
The construction of an all-weather road at Bunker Hill in Border Field State Park is proposed to begin in June of this year as well.
Bunker Hill is home to World War II-era bunkers, and separates the east and west sides of the Border Patrol’s surveillance area. The proposed all-weather road would consist of two segments, the western half which would span approximately 1,000 feet, and an eastern segment, spanning about 1,400 feet. The design is meant to take special care to maximize the Border Patrol’s ability to effectively police the border and leave the WWII bunkers undisturbed. Lighting along the road will also be added for extra security.
This project will not be offered to private contractors, but will be incorporated as part of a military project.
In each project, the Border Patrol made clear their intentions to seek out accountability and permits from environmental authorities.
A statement made by the Border Patrol explained the agency is “committed to consultation with the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, states, local governments, Native American tribes and property owners in the United States to minimize the impact on the environment, culture, commerce and quality of life for the communities and residents located near the sites at which such tactical infrastructure is to be constructed.”
Each project falls under the Imperial Beach Border Patrol station’s territory, which extends from the Pacific Ocean to Otay Mesa.
To learn more, or offer comments or suggestions for these projects to the Border Patrol, visit:
http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/ti/ti_docs/sector/san_diego/san_diego_tac_proj.xmlhttp://cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/border_security/ti/ti_docs/sector/san_diego/circle_draft.ctt/circle_draft.pdf
http://imperialbeach.patch.com/articles/border-patrol-plans-three-new-projects-in-border-field-state-park
Friday, February 11, 2011
Dueling plans for Friendship Park on display
Sign on San Diego
February 8, 2011
by Elizabeth Aguilera
February 8, 2011
by Elizabeth Aguilera
Friendship Park activists and the Border Patrol will unveil opposing design plans for the area around Friendship Circle on the border Wednesday.
Border Patrol plans include replacement of primary fencing and no changes in public access, while the Friends of Friendship Park's plan includes seating, landscaping and increased visiting hours for the public.
The Border Patrol is hosting the open house from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Marina Vista Community Center, 1075 8th St. in Imperial Beach.
Public access to the park, on the border near the most southwestern edge of the county, has been limited since 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security completed secondary fencing in the area that locked Friendship Circle and much of the park between the primary and secondary fencing.
The Border Patrol’s proposed design, called Surf Fence Project, would replace 1,200 feet of fencing from Friendship Circle to the surf. It will be made of “shade structure,” a slat-like fencing with spaces in between the slats, said Steven Pitts, spokesman for the Border Patrol.
Pitts would not comment on the Friends' proposal. He said the Border Patrol is focused on operational goals and safety of both the public and agents. Before the installation of secondary fencing, he said, the area was known as a place where agents were accosted with rocks and smuggling was rampant.
Members of the public are only allowed in the park on weekends between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for 30 minutes at a time. Only 25 people are allowed in at the same time. An additional barrier erected near the primary fencing keeps visitors from touching fingers or whispering updates to one another.
Since the changes were implemented, Friends of Friendship Park, a coalition of volunteers, have been pushing for increased access and a better design that would give the area between the fences a more park-like feel. The coalition’s design by San Diego architect James Brown, principal at Public Architecture and Planning, is meant to create a more inviting atmosphere.
Before the change in 2009, visitors could walk up to the fence, the monument and along the beachline. Guests to the park would visit with friends or family on the other side, touch fingers and chat through the fence. Some would tote beach chairs and set up picnics along the fence.
“That experience has virtually been eliminated,” said Jill Holslin, a leader of the Friends group. “You feel like you are entering into a prison on visiting day. It’s a highly militarized environment.”
Pitts said the Army Corp of Engineers is reviewing the Friends design and if it is approved it will go before Customs and Border Protection leadership for a final decision.
The design created by Brown allows public access up to primary mesh fencing at three points, the binational garden, the foundry monument and the beach area. The secondary fencing entries in the design would be flexible enough to be opened wide for regular park access and to be shut down for security reasons, according to the plans.
“You still have the fence, there is no negating that, but it takes away a little bit of that feeling of being in a holding cell,” Brown said. “We take the responsibility to create a park that fulfills current Border Patrol needs very seriously at the same time designing a park that allows enough flexibility that it can have a life in the future when there is not so much security around it.”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/08/dualing-plans-for-friendship-park-on-display-wedne/Thursday, November 19, 2009
U.S. cracks down on border meeting spot for Mexicans
Reuters
November 19, 2009
by Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - The United States has severely restricted access to a spot on the Mexican border where families and lovers divided by illegal immigration could unite briefly to hold hands or kiss through a fence.
In a move to stop undocumented migrants and the passing of narcotics through gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border fence between San Diego and Tijuana, the United States has fortified the area with a second fence to tighten security.
The Friendship Park on the Pacific Ocean became a place for cross-border weddings, church services, Christmas parties and even yoga classes when opened in 1971 by then U.S. first lady Pat Nixon.
Planned as a U.S. park with access for people on both sides of the frontier, picnic tables and swings were put out of Mexicans' reach in 1994 when the United States raised a mesh fence to stop drug traffickers and illegal immigrants.
But families could sit on either side of the fence to kiss through it, talk and touch one another even as U.S. border agents nearby patrolled to keep out job-hungry illegal immigrants, terrorists and smugglers.
The fence became a popular spot for separated lovers who would pass notes on Valentine's Day.
But the U.S. government's second, larger barrier has sensors, lighting, radars and cameras on the edge of the park. Officials built a patrol road through it and fenced off access to the old mesh fence that abutted onto Mexico.
Work finished on the park fencing earlier this month, sealing off access for Mexicans on the U.S. side unless they take part in highly regulated visits.
"It was an act of cruelty," said Katy Parkinson, a U.S. resident in Tijuana who runs a charity for immigrants. "Here, grandmothers met their grandchildren for the first time, they took photos, people could find each other again."
The Border Patrol says those on the U.S. side can access the old Mexican fence for four hours on Saturdays and Sundays once vetted by agents in groups of up to 25 people.
"People can still meet at designated times," said San Diego-based Border Patrol Agent Jose Morales.
"The second fence was needed because the first one was ... breached by smugglers and people passed drugs and fake IDs through it," he added.
BORDER WALL
Nixon opened the park in Imperial Beach, California, in August 1971 as part of her efforts to promote U.S.-Mexican relations and, as she shook hands with Mexicans that day, was reported as saying "I hate to see a fence anywhere."
The fence is part of the 661-mile double-layered wall along part of the United States' 2,000-mile border with Mexico, built by the U.S. government.
"We will find a way to see each other," said shop assistant Carmen, 29, whose husband lives illegally in Los Angeles and who used to meet regularly at the old park fence. "I can't cross into the United States, I've been deported three times."
Almost 12 million illegal immigrants, mostly Hispanic, live and work in the United States, including millions of Mexicans.
Since the Sept 11 attacks in the United States, political pressure for tighter border controls has grown sharply. Supporters of the border fence say Mexico's violent drug war that has killed more than 15,000 people since late 2006 makes it all the more necessary to keep criminals out.
But some border experts say the fence does not stop those trying to get into the United States and only makes it more dangerous. Some 5,600 people have died trying to cross into the United States from Mexico since the U.S. government increased border security in 1994, human rights groups say.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5AI53120091119?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=11621
November 19, 2009
by Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - The United States has severely restricted access to a spot on the Mexican border where families and lovers divided by illegal immigration could unite briefly to hold hands or kiss through a fence.
In a move to stop undocumented migrants and the passing of narcotics through gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border fence between San Diego and Tijuana, the United States has fortified the area with a second fence to tighten security.
The Friendship Park on the Pacific Ocean became a place for cross-border weddings, church services, Christmas parties and even yoga classes when opened in 1971 by then U.S. first lady Pat Nixon.
Planned as a U.S. park with access for people on both sides of the frontier, picnic tables and swings were put out of Mexicans' reach in 1994 when the United States raised a mesh fence to stop drug traffickers and illegal immigrants.
But families could sit on either side of the fence to kiss through it, talk and touch one another even as U.S. border agents nearby patrolled to keep out job-hungry illegal immigrants, terrorists and smugglers.
The fence became a popular spot for separated lovers who would pass notes on Valentine's Day.
But the U.S. government's second, larger barrier has sensors, lighting, radars and cameras on the edge of the park. Officials built a patrol road through it and fenced off access to the old mesh fence that abutted onto Mexico.
Work finished on the park fencing earlier this month, sealing off access for Mexicans on the U.S. side unless they take part in highly regulated visits.
"It was an act of cruelty," said Katy Parkinson, a U.S. resident in Tijuana who runs a charity for immigrants. "Here, grandmothers met their grandchildren for the first time, they took photos, people could find each other again."
The Border Patrol says those on the U.S. side can access the old Mexican fence for four hours on Saturdays and Sundays once vetted by agents in groups of up to 25 people.
"People can still meet at designated times," said San Diego-based Border Patrol Agent Jose Morales.
"The second fence was needed because the first one was ... breached by smugglers and people passed drugs and fake IDs through it," he added.
BORDER WALL
Nixon opened the park in Imperial Beach, California, in August 1971 as part of her efforts to promote U.S.-Mexican relations and, as she shook hands with Mexicans that day, was reported as saying "I hate to see a fence anywhere."
The fence is part of the 661-mile double-layered wall along part of the United States' 2,000-mile border with Mexico, built by the U.S. government.
"We will find a way to see each other," said shop assistant Carmen, 29, whose husband lives illegally in Los Angeles and who used to meet regularly at the old park fence. "I can't cross into the United States, I've been deported three times."
Almost 12 million illegal immigrants, mostly Hispanic, live and work in the United States, including millions of Mexicans.
Since the Sept 11 attacks in the United States, political pressure for tighter border controls has grown sharply. Supporters of the border fence say Mexico's violent drug war that has killed more than 15,000 people since late 2006 makes it all the more necessary to keep criminals out.
But some border experts say the fence does not stop those trying to get into the United States and only makes it more dangerous. Some 5,600 people have died trying to cross into the United States from Mexico since the U.S. government increased border security in 1994, human rights groups say.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5AI53120091119?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=11621
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Bare Dirt Along New Border Fence A Flood Worry
KPBS San Diego
October 13, 2009
by Amy Isackson
State parks officials are worried the federal government's failure to grow plants on slopes where it built new sections of the border fence could mean floods on both sides of the US Mexico border this rainy season. Smuggler's Gulch is a major area of concern.
About four years ago, the US federal government waived all environmental laws along the US Mexico border in order to build the border fence. The head of the Department of Homeland Security promised, even so, the government would control erosion to protect the Tijuana River Valley and estuary.
Clay Phillips is with the California Parks Department and manages the estuary reserve. He says the bare slopes that run the length of the new fence construction are a stark contrast to the promise.
"You wouldn't find a Jack In the Box where they're adding a parking lot that would be left in this condition."
The federal government has tried to grow plants on the slopes to control erosion without success. Phillips says moderate rain will erode the bare dirt. That could clog the Tijuana Estuary and cause floods in Tijuana and San Diego.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/oct/13/bare-dirt-along-new-border-fence-flood-worry/
October 13, 2009
by Amy Isackson
State parks officials are worried the federal government's failure to grow plants on slopes where it built new sections of the border fence could mean floods on both sides of the US Mexico border this rainy season. Smuggler's Gulch is a major area of concern.
About four years ago, the US federal government waived all environmental laws along the US Mexico border in order to build the border fence. The head of the Department of Homeland Security promised, even so, the government would control erosion to protect the Tijuana River Valley and estuary.
Clay Phillips is with the California Parks Department and manages the estuary reserve. He says the bare slopes that run the length of the new fence construction are a stark contrast to the promise.
"You wouldn't find a Jack In the Box where they're adding a parking lot that would be left in this condition."
The federal government has tried to grow plants on the slopes to control erosion without success. Phillips says moderate rain will erode the bare dirt. That could clog the Tijuana Estuary and cause floods in Tijuana and San Diego.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/oct/13/bare-dirt-along-new-border-fence-flood-worry/
Friday, July 10, 2009
Ms. Napolitano: Tear Down The Walls
NBC San Diego
July 8, 2009
by R. Stickney
July 8, 2009
by R. Stickney
There’s no other place like it. It’s a place where officials have met; where religious groups can gather. If it’s lost, supporters say there will be no place on the U.S.-Mexico border where ordinary people can meet face-to-face without checkpoints or guard shacks.
In an open letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, the Friends of Friendship Park are hoping to restore public access to the park area along the border between San Diego and Tijuana.
The area served as a meeting place for decades until the Department of Homeland Security under Michael Chertoff built several barriers. The belief was that a simple fence separating the two countries was a threat to U.S. security.
Since then, the coalition of community groups has been fighting to have access to the area restored. On Tuesday, the group sent a letter signed by over 70 community-based organizations to Secretary Napolitano.
John Fanestil, a member of the leadership team of Friends of Friendship Park, said they're beginning to see some movement.
“It would be a real disaster if we reduce the border to a battle zone," Fanestil said. "There must be room for friendship on the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Enrique Morones, with the Border Angels said he is greatly encouraged by recent discussions between activists, community groups and government agencies. “We are a coalition made up of people from all walks of life,” he said Wednesday. “Friendship has no borders.”
The group has even gotten the support of California State Attorney General Jerry Brown who is interested in restoring public access to land owned by the state.
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Ms-Napolitano-Tear-Down-The-Walls.htmlTuesday, July 7, 2009
San Diego officials mark completion of border berm
San Jose Mercury News
July 6, 2009
by Thomas Watkins
SAN DIEGO—A scrub-filled gorge historically used as a staging area for immigrants to gather by the hundred before dashing illegally into the U.S. has been all but sealed off by a massive berm topped with a steel-meshed fence and bright lighting.
July 6, 2009
by Thomas Watkins
SAN DIEGO—A scrub-filled gorge historically used as a staging area for immigrants to gather by the hundred before dashing illegally into the U.S. has been all but sealed off by a massive berm topped with a steel-meshed fence and bright lighting.
The finished Smuggler's Gulch project was unveiled Monday. It involved moving 1.3 million cubic yards of dirt to fill in part of the canyon, which straddles the border just inland from the Pacific Ocean and alongside the Tijuana River estuary.
At a cost of about $59 million, and 12 years of planning, environmental reviews and legal challenges, the project has transformed the look of the westernmost edge of the border, an environmentally sensitive area that is a key stopover for migratory birds.
Gone are the precarious switchback roads that once zigzagged up either side of the canyon. It now is filled in with dirt and spanned by the light-brown berm that has a smooth asphalt road running along its top.
Gone too are the crowds of would-be immigrants and the vendors that catered to them on the Mexican side of the gorge.
"This is night and day compared to what it used to be," U.S. Border Patrol supervisory agent Daryl Reed said, recalling a period in the '90s when an agent could arrest dozens of people in a single shift.
The project is part of an older plan dating back to 1996, when Congress approved a 14-mile stretch of fence inland from the ocean. Filling in the gorge and work on the surrounding area proved highly contentious as environmentalists worried about potential damage to sensitive habitats in the estuary.
The Border Patrol says changes in the area will actually help the environment, because fewer people will be trampling on sensitive habitat and the asphalt roads have reduced the amount of dust in the air.
Border Patrol agents said the fencing means they now have full "operational control" of the area. In 1986, there were 600,000 apprehensions of immigrants along San Diego County's border with Mexico, Border Patrol spokesman Jerry Conlin said. The number has dropped dramatically since then, with 162,000 arrests last year.
But critics say people are simply being forced farther east into more treacherous conditions in the desert.
Conlin said the Smuggler's Gulch project means agents can now safely zip across the rolling terrain in minutes, whereas it would perviously have taken up to an hour.
Local lore says the gulch got its name from bootleggers bringing alcohol into the U.S. during Prohibition.
The project has spelled the end for a transnational park on a bluff overlooking the Pacific. Friendship Park drew crowds from both sides, and people would chat through a chain-link fence separating Imperial Beach and Tijuana. Now it lies abandoned behind a towering new fence.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_12764623?source=email&nclick_check=1Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Legal Case Against Friendship Park Activist Continued
KPBS San Diego
June 10, 2009
by Amy Isackson
June 10, 2009
by Amy Isackson
The legal case against an activist who tried to block construction of the westernmost section of the border fence was continued Wednesday morning. As KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson explains Dan Watman faces trespassing charges in connection with his effort to save Friendship Park.
On April 8th, Dan Watman stood in front of a bulldozer at Friendship Park.
The Department of Homeland Security had recently sealed off the space with more border fencing.
Watman says he blocked the fence construction for about 40 minutes.
"What I believe as far as far as people making friends across barriers, it was about as symbolic as it could get. That was the last post even with the friendship monument which in my mind represents the friendship between the people of both nations."
Federal agents cited Watman with misdemeanor trespassing charges.
The park had been a crossborder meeting spot for 30 years.
For the last six years, Watman organized activities there like yoga, salsa dancing and language lessons. People on both sides of the fence participated.
Watman says there's a chance federal officials could re-open the park. He's plans to meet with the Border Patrol later this month.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/jun/10/legal-case-against-friendship-park-activist-contin/
Monday, June 1, 2009
Federal officials create opening over border fence public access
San Diego Union Tribune
June 1, 2009
by Leslie Berestein
June 1, 2009
by Leslie Berestein
SOUTH COUNTY — Less than five months after federal officials pulled the plug on public access through a new border fence to a historic monument at Border Field State Park, the possibility is back on the table.
Speaking at a luncheon in downtown San Diego last week, Homeland Security border czar Alan Bersin told the audience that immigrant-rights groups have been discussing prospects for public access with department officials.
“It is a dialogue under way,” said Bersin, who was recently named the department's assistant secretary for international affairs.
In January, two weeks before the Obama administration took office, U.S. Border Patrol officials announced a decision to permanently close access to a popular cross-border meeting spot within the state park, where a marble obelisk dating to 1851 marks the U.S.-Mexico border.
Until late last year, the area surrounding the monument – accommodated within a cutout in the steel mesh fence separating the two countries – was easily accessible. On weekends, it was common for U.S. visitors with family in Baja California to bring picnics and chairs to the area, known as Friendship Park, and spend the day chatting with relatives through the fence.
The area was declared off-limits in December, shortly before construction began on a secondary fence through Border Field State Park. That barrier, which is mostly completed, is north of and runs parallel to the main border fence. State and federal officials discussed public access to the monument, and until January there were tentative plans to allow visitors to use a gate in the secondary fence to get to a 40-foot-wide space that flanks the obelisk.
This changed after local Border Patrol officials concluded it would be too difficult for agents to monitor a public gathering place between the two fences. At the time, an agency official in Washington, D.C., said that while visitors frequently pass innocuous items such as food back and forth through small openings in the fence, they could also pass fraudulent documents or drugs.
Bersin said last week that while security would not be compromised, the idea is to rethink the access issue in hopes of being able to have both security and controlled interaction.
On Friday, a Homeland Security spokesman said the only thing that has changed so far is that the discussion is back on.
“This certainly doesn't mean a shift in policy. It is simply dialogue,” agency spokesman Matthew Chandler said. “It is about senior Border Patrol leadership continuing a dialogue with local stakeholders.”
Since the decision was made to bar public access, a coalition of local community, immigrant-rights, environmental and religious groups have lobbied federal officials and policy makers to reconsider.
John Fanestil, a United Methodist minister and one of several local proponents of maintaining public access to Friendship Park, promoted the issue in Washington, D.C., last month. He and other Southwest border activists traveled there to show support of legislation that would require the government to adhere to environmental laws when considering border security.
Last week, Fanestil was at the luncheon where Bersin spoke, and Fanestil said he was encouraged by Bersin's comments.
“I was really pleased, as you can imagine,” Fanestil said. “Our suspicion is that this decision was taken in haste, and that over time, what we think of as a saner view of things will prevail. They are perfectly capable of controlling the public at that venue.”
Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-affiliated human rights group that has also lobbied to preserve visitor access, said there have been a series of informal talks with policymakers and federal officials over the past few months. He said a formal meeting to discuss access is in the works.
However, access to the monument and the fence could be compromised by the state budget crisis. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting more $213 million from state parks over the next two fiscal years, resulting in the possible shutdown of more than 200 state parks, among them Border Field.
The park has been closed to vehicles since winter rains caused flooding but has remained open to hikers and equestrians. Park Superintendent Clay Phillips said vehicle access should be restored within the next few weeks.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Meeting place sealed off: Border patrol agents prohibit access to Friendship Park
February 22, 2009
San Diego Union Tribune
By Penni Crabtree
San Diego Union Tribune
By Penni Crabtree
SOUTH COUNTY — In the end, immigration activists never made it to the site of yesterday's planned demonstration, a plaza dubbed Friendship Park that sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean at Border Field State Park.
For the first time, Border Patrol agents formally sealed off access on the U.S. side to the plaza, for years a popular meeting place on the U.S.-Mexico border for families to visit through the fence.
The Department of Homeland Security announced late last year that it will prohibit all public access to the park where a secondary wall is under construction. Since then, the plaza has become a symbolic touchstone for those who debate border enforcement policies.
Until recently, federal officials had planned to have a gate in the secondary fence that would have allowed people on either side to visit.
“This is a treasured piece of the San Diego landscape where people meet for peaceful reasons,” said John Fanestil, executive director of the Foundation for Change, a nonprofit social-justice group involved in immigration issues. “The fencing will change that landscape.”
In recent weeks, Fanestil and others formed the Friends of Friendship Park Coalition to save the park and have received support from elected officials, including Reps. Bob Filner and Susan Davis, both San Diego Democrats. Filner, Davis and other federal lawmakers from border states sent a Feb. 8 letter to President Barack Obama asking him to revisit the construction plans.
Yesterday, about 125 park supporters marched the mile or so on muddy roads and along the beach to Friendship Park. A handful of people opposed to illegal immigration also were there.
A phalanx of Border Patrol agents in off-road vehicles blocked access to the plaza entrance, causing demonstrators on both sides of the issue to gather below the bluff.
The spot was not without poignant symbolism, a strip of beach pierced with metal pilings that form the existing border fence, which runs into the ocean for a few feet before giving way. A child could easily swim between the two countries.
On the south side of the pilings, Mexican families strolled on the beach, bought roasted ears of corn from a vendor and leaned against the fence to watch happenings on the other side.
On the north side of the pilings, Friendship Park supporters held an ecumenical religious service, complete with a choir. Opponents of illegal immigration tried to disrupt it with a siren-blasting bullhorn and shouted slogans such as, “Go home, illegals!”
One wore a cap with the logo of the Minutemen, an anti-illegal-immigration group.
Since the ban on public access to Friendship Park was declared, a few dozen immigration activists have continued to gather there weekly to hold religious services and other activities.
Yesterday, two activists were detained and later released without charge after they tried to approach the fence against orders from Border Patrol agents.
“This is the first day they've chosen to enforce the ban on public access,” Fanestil said. “Before, they tolerated our presence. Clearly they will tolerate us no more.”
Fanestil said he and other members of the park coalition plan to meet and discuss plans for future park actions.
Mark Endicott, public-affairs officer for the U.S. Border Patrol, said no public access will be authorized between the primary and secondary border fences.
The decision to impose the ban is “based on our border security mission and to assure the safety of border agents and the public,” he said.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/22/1m22park23590-meeting-place-sealed/Saturday, February 21, 2009
Beloved parts of border changed almost overnight
February 19, 2009
Associated Press / MSNBC
by Elliot Spagat
IMPERIAL SAND DUNES, Calif. - Every weekend he can, Gene Elwell heads to the desert and races his buggy over the largest sand dunes in the U.S. Nearly 200 miles west, on California's Pacific shores, the Rev. John Fanestil spends every Sunday at Friendship Park, where people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border touch hands and talk through holes in a chain-link fence.
Associated Press / MSNBC
by Elliot Spagat
IMPERIAL SAND DUNES, Calif. - Every weekend he can, Gene Elwell heads to the desert and races his buggy over the largest sand dunes in the U.S. Nearly 200 miles west, on California's Pacific shores, the Rev. John Fanestil spends every Sunday at Friendship Park, where people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border touch hands and talk through holes in a chain-link fence.
For decades, the dunes and Friendship Park were virtually unchanged. But in its final months, as the Bush administration raced to fulfill a pledge to erect 670 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers on the border, they were transformed almost overnight.
A fence now slices through the Imperial Sand Dunes, preventing recreational riders from veering into Mexican sands. Before, drug smugglers easily blended in with riders to reach Interstate 8, less than a half-mile from the border at one point.
Friendship Park, opened in 1971 to promote ties between the U.S. and Mexico, is closing. Crews have torn up a parking lot and removed trees and picnic benches to make way for two tall fences, ending years of cross-border food sales and family reunions.It's similar elsewhere on the 1,954-mile border. In Eagle Pass, Texas, a golf course is sandwiched between the Rio Grande and a new fence. In Columbus, N.M., visitors see the fence from the high ground at Pancho Villa State Park, named for the Mexican general who led an attack there in 1916.
The Bush administration built 224 miles of barriers during its last 2 1/2 months, bringing the total to 602 miles. The Border Patrol plans to hit 670 miles this year, spokesman Lloyd Easterling said, but what happens after that is anyone's guess.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at her Senate confirmation hearing that fences can help in border cities but that it makes little sense to fence the entire border.
Whatever happens, the border landscape already has indelibly changed.
___
The southern tip of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, a film location for "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi," resembles the Sahara. Its slopes draw families because they are lower and more gradual than the desert playground's northern reaches, which attract rowdier crowds.
Elwell, 54, a San Diego-area native who sells office equipment, belongs to a close-knit but fast-growing group of families from Southern California and Arizona.
They ride the dunes day and night, sleeping in trailers parked around a campfire. They liken the thrill to a never-ending roller coaster.
"There's no particular trail, like you would up in the mountains or some places even out here in the desert," Elwell said. "Out here you find your own way, you find your own world."
___
Border Field State Park separates San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, which together make up the largest metropolitan area along the border. It has a beautiful beach and abundant trails, but one of its biggest draws is Friendship Park, a half-acre cement plaza on a bluff overlooking the Pacific.
When then-first lady Pat Nixon opened the plaza 38 years ago, she declared, "I hate to see a fence anywhere."
On the beach, the countries are separated by steel poles spaced far enough apart at one point for an adult to squeeze through. Vendors in Mexico hawk corn-on-the-cob and tamales to customers on the U.S. side as Border Patrol agents keep watch.
Fanestil, 47, visited Friendship Park every Christmas to sing with revelers. The United Methodist minister was incensed in June when a Border Patrol agent said he no longer could pass food across the border. Fanestil responded by holding cross-border services every Sunday.
"People have been passing things through the fence here for generations — tamales, candies, bracelets," the San Diego native said.
___
In California's southeast corner, the dunes are about 40 miles long and an average of five miles wide. Trailers crowd campgrounds on holiday weekends. The sand buggies range from lightweight speedsters with V-8 engines to lumbering vehicles that could pass for golf carts.
The sands extend about five miles into Mexico. Until last year, the border was almost invisible, marked by 15-foot concrete obelisks spaced far apart.
In the 1980s Elwell drove his buggy straight into the town of Algodones for tacos, and even in recent years he regularly drifted into Mexico. Agents chased wayward riders and ordered them back to the U.S.
Smugglers decorated their marijuana-laden vehicles with decals and flags to mix in. Last year, a suspected smuggler killed a Border Patrol agent by running over him in a Hummer, then fled to Mexico.
Border Patrol officials say private contractors were initially stumped when asked to design a 13-mile fence for the shifting sands. The answer was what the agency calls a "floating fence."
The $6 million-a-mile barrier completed in December consists of 16-foot-tall steel tubes filled with concrete and spaced tightly together. Triangular mounts aren't bolted to the ground, allowing them to rock back and forth with the wind. Small panels are chained together, twisting in different directions.
The Border Patrol says arrests of suspected smugglers plummeted after construction began last summer.
Elwell and his friends marveled as they stood on a ridge one recent Saturday and stared at the fence, stretching like a dark ribbon over the sand.
As the number of riders grows — the dunes records about 1.2 million visits from October to March — their playground is shrinking. In 2000, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management made about half the park off-limits to vehicles to protect the endangered Peirson's milk-vetch, a tiny perennial with purple blooms.
Some visitors feel the dunes are dangerously crowded, with up to 200,000 people some weekends. Steve Razo, a BLM spokesman, said seven to 10 people die each year in traffic accidents.
Elwell and his friends bemoan the tighter quarters but generally agree the fence will make the dunes safer.
"It makes you feel a little crammed in, like 'This is your playground, and you can't go over there,'" said Tom Holdenried, 59, a woodworker from Ramona.
___
At Friendship Park, the Border Patrol is building 3 1/2 miles of fence to the ocean, a project delayed for 12 years by lawsuits and environmental reviews. In 2005, the Bush administration exercised new authority to override those challenges; it later used the same powers on vast swaths of the border.
Work began in August and is expected to finish by May at a cost of about $16 million a mile.
The area is much quieter than it was in the 1990s, when the Border Patrol was badly overmatched by illegal immigrants who swarmed across the porous border. But Mike Fisher, the San Diego sector chief, said people still make holes in the fence and slip children between poles on the beach.
"I want people to be able to go to the park with their kids and not worry about smugglers operating in that area," he said.
Hilda Olivares drove from Los Angeles on one recent Sunday to talk through the fence with her mother, sister and brother-in-law. She could have seen them in Tijuana but wanted to avoid the long lines at the border. Her husband, Paul, passed them a wad of cash wrapped in a $20 bill.
Carlos Perez, who lives in Tijuana, cried when he saw his 5-year-old daughter, Caszandra, for the first time in three years. She slipped through the fence and embraced him, also in tears.
"A fence makes things more difficult," Perez said. "It divides us even further."
Added Sandra Castillo Vasquez, the girl's mother and a U.S. citizen who lives in San Diego: "At least we had this connection. We could touch each other."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29284412/Monday, February 9, 2009
Fence Supplants 'Friendship' At U.S.-Mexico Border
February 9, 2009
NPR Day to Day
By Jason Beaubien
At the very western edge of the U.S.-Mexico border, there used to be a small plaza between San Diego and Tijuana called Friendship Park. The international border fence ran through the middle of it before dropping into the Pacific, and it was one of the few places on the border where people from Mexico and the U.S. could meet and talk across the frontier.
NPR Day to Day
By Jason Beaubien
At the very western edge of the U.S.-Mexico border, there used to be a small plaza between San Diego and Tijuana called Friendship Park. The international border fence ran through the middle of it before dropping into the Pacific, and it was one of the few places on the border where people from Mexico and the U.S. could meet and talk across the frontier.
Now, it's a construction site.
The Department of Homeland Security is installing a secondary fence — essentially creating a no man's land where Friendship Park once stood. Massive yellow bulldozers, backhoes and earthmovers are tearing up what used to be the plaza.
Cross-Border Reunions
The park is just a stone's throw from the beach. The Mexico side sits next to a bullring and a series of small restaurants selling seafood and cold drinks.
On this particular weekday afternoon, Delfino Rodriguez is standing in Tijuana next to the 15-foot-high border fence, watching the heavy equipment push around huge piles of earth.
"[Friendship Park] was a very nice green park … and it's gone," he says with a laugh.
Rodriguez says that, especially on the weekends, people who were unable to cross the border would gather here to chat. Families would set up beach chairs on both sides of the fence. Lovers would clasp fingers through the mesh.
All that's over now, Rodriguez says.
Two weekends ago, he says, he was at the park and he saw a Mexican woman crying. She had come from San Quintin, in the south of Baja California.
"She traveled by herself to share a lunch with her husband, but her husband couldn't show up here. It wasn't allowed. So she was crying here," Rodriquez says.
U.S.: Illegal Activity In Park
The Department of Homeland Security is shutting down this meeting spot as part of a huge project to install more than 600 miles of fencing along the southern border with Mexico.
Here, federal contractors are installing triple fencing along the final three and a half miles of the boundary between San Diego and Tijuana. They're filling canyons with dirt and bulldozing land along the border to put in a high-speed access road.
Mike Fisher, the head of the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego, says the decision to shut down all access to the fence at Friendship Park was a difficult one. But Fisher says it was necessary because smugglers were using the large crowds as cover for illegal activity, such as sales of fraudulent documents and narcotics smuggling.
"They'd have parties on both sides of the border and would throw soccer balls from one side to the other," Fisher says. "And the balls would contain narcotics."
Meeting Point And Cultural Venue
Friendship Park was dedicated in 1971 by then-first lady Patricia Nixon to celebrate the bonds between Mexico and the United States.
In addition to being a meeting point for family and friends, in recent years ad hoc cultural events used to happen here. There were cross-border concerts, Christmas celebrations and English-Spanish language classes through the fence.
And California being California, this may have been one of the few places in the world to have hosted "international yoga classes" with half the class in one country and half the class in another.
Civil Disobedience At Unique Spot On Border
Since last summer, John Fanestil, a United Methodist preacher, has been holding a weekly Mass at the park. Competing with the drone of Border Patrol helicopters, ice cream vendors and music from the cantinas on the Tijuana beachfront, Fanestil offers Communion through the fence.
On a recent Sunday, Fanestil and a couple dozen other people stepped over a flimsy, plastic construction barrier to hold this Mass at the border. Fanestil says he plans to continue the service as long as possible as an act of civil disobedience.
"The idea that they couldn't control illegal behavior, prevent undocumented crossings without building this massive wall I think is, on the face of it, absurd," Fanestil says.
He says a one-size-fits-all federal policy is wiping out a unique spot on the border.
On a recent weekday afternoon, the clash between U.S. policy and Mexico's twisted love affair with its northern neighbor plays out on this mesa by the Pacific.
On the San Diego side of the fence, construction crews are leveling the ground to put in a stronger barrier, while on the Tijuana side, three weathered old men in cowboy hats sing a song about crossing it.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100155361
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Visual Aid: County officials to review construction plans for border fence
Brownsville Herald
February 7, 2009
by Laura Martinez
February 7, 2009
by Laura Martinez
As Cameron County officials review visuals of what the border fence will look like in the county, Brownsville city officials are set to vote on whether to allow fencing on city property.
The City Commission will vote whether to accept a proposed agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that would allow the construction of a floating fence on city property.
For more than a year the city has been in negotiations with the DHS to allow the city to remove the fence, once construction begins on the proposed East Loop and River Levee city projects, officials said.
"Nobody wants a fence," said City Commissioner Anthony Troiani, "but the fact is they (the federal government) own the property and they are going to do what they are going to do. If we can't come up to an alternative where we can benefit, we are really kind of being short sided."
City officials said if approved, Brownsville would be the only city between San Diego, Calif. and the rest of the southern border that would be able to remove the fence for a local project.
"We are the only the community all along the entire border that will have the opportunity to actually remove this fence that is mandated by Congress. I think that is huge," Troiani said.
According to City Attorney John Chosey, once the fence is removed the city will regain the title and possession of the property.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling said he could not comment on ongoing negotiations between the city and CBP.
The border fence issue in general will be discussed at a 6 p.m. Thursday public hearing in City Hall chambers. A vote on whether to accept the construction of a removable fence will follow.
The City Commission and Brownsville Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. are encouraging residents to attend the hearing. The mayor said he opposes the fence's construction in general for several reasons. Ahumada said the fence would not only harm the ecological corridor but it would impact the future development of a river walk.
"I caution the commission not to throw away all these things that benefit the city or put the city in a better position to bring damages against the Department of Homeland Security."
He added the fence affects a lawsuit filed by the Texas Border Coalition against the federal government.
"Should this (the fence in Brownsville) be executed everything becomes moot," Ahumada said
Ahumada also said he was not privy to the ongoing fence discussions between the city and DHS. Troiani, however, disagreed with the mayor, saying Ahumada chose not to participate in the negotiation process.
Meanwhile, County Judge Carlos H. Cascos received simulations last week of what the proposed border fence in the county will look like.
A floating fence also is planned for an unincorporated or rural area of Cameron County. Bollard and picket fences also will be used in rural areas, according to information supplied to the county by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
A bollard fence is similar to concrete pillars seen in front of retail stores, such as a Wal-Mart.
Although county officials knew the border fence was planned to be constructed in some portions of the county, they had no idea what it was going to look like, Cascos said.
Cascos assumed it would be similar to that of the "China wall," or it would "look more like a prisoner of war camp" type of fence, he said.
Although the county opposes the fence, there is little hope that anyone will be able to stop construction, he said.
Easterling said that has of Friday, the fence was still being worked on and that the DHS had not received any word from Congress to halt construction.
The fencing in Cameron County will be constructed at Nemo Road and Weaver's Mountain near Harlingen; West and East Los Indios; La Paloma; Ho chi Minh-Estero ,also near Harlingen; and the Riverbend Resort Water Tower and the PUB fence line in Brownsville.
Also included is the extension of Palm Boulevard to the Fort Brown golf course; the Fort Brown golf course to the Veterans International Bridge port of entry; and Veterans International Bridge to Sea Shell Inn.
Last month, huge dump trucks could be seen traveling to and from the river levee near Riverbend Resort, where 1.6 miles of the fencing is being constructed.
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/fence_94548___article.html/city_county.htmlFriday, January 9, 2009
Popular border spot won't be accessible
San Diego Union-Tribune
January 9, 2008
SOUTH COUNTY — Frequent visitors to Border Field State Park, along with park officials, are expressing surprise and dismay over a sudden reversal of plans by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that will result in the permanent closing of a popular cross-border meeting spot.
A secondary border fence running the length of the park to the ocean is being built 90 feet north of the existing fence that marks the U.S.-Mexico border.
Until recently, federal officials said the plan was to have a gate in the secondary fence allowing public access to a small area known as Friendship Park. That area surrounds a marble obelisk dating to 1851 that marks the point where the United States and Mexico agreed on a border after the Mexican War.
The area surrounding the monument, which is accommodated within a cutout in the existing steel-mesh fence, has long been a popular spot for families to gather and visit with relatives on the Mexican side.
At a meeting with Border Patrol officials Tuesday, Border Field State Park Superintendent Clay Phillips and several other attendees were informed that plans had changed.
“They told us that there would be no public access of any kind or any form,” Phillips said. “I can say I was surprised, since the Border Patrol had designed the project with a pedestrian gate and with a walkway to the monument, and at least verbally made some indication that there would be some kind of controlled public access.”
Until recently, state and federal officials had been working out the details of public access to a roughly 40-foot-wide space surrounding the monument.
Lloyd Easterling, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C., said the change of heart came after federal officials concluded that it would be too difficult for agents to monitor a public gathering place between the two fences.
“It would be requiring our agents to constantly monitor interactions at the primary fence, watching for people passing small items back and forth,” Easterling said.
Easterling said that while visitors frequently pass innocuous items such as food back and forth through small openings, others pass fraudulent documents or drugs.
For those who hoped to return to Friendship Park once construction was finished in May, the reversal is a disappointment.
“I may be in denial. I am not willing to accept it quite yet,” said Daniel Watman, an organizer of Border Meetup, which has conducted yoga, surfing and other events at the fence to promote cultural interaction.
Easterling said that once the second fence is complete, there will be no access to the primary fence at the beach, either. Visitors to Border Field State Park will be able to see through the two fences into Mexico, but only people on the Mexican side will be able to access the monument.
Phillips said state parks officials are hoping there is a way to negotiate a middle ground that would allow some public access without compromising security.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/09/1m9park002037-popular-border-spot-wont-be-accessib/
January 9, 2008
SOUTH COUNTY — Frequent visitors to Border Field State Park, along with park officials, are expressing surprise and dismay over a sudden reversal of plans by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that will result in the permanent closing of a popular cross-border meeting spot.
A secondary border fence running the length of the park to the ocean is being built 90 feet north of the existing fence that marks the U.S.-Mexico border.
Until recently, federal officials said the plan was to have a gate in the secondary fence allowing public access to a small area known as Friendship Park. That area surrounds a marble obelisk dating to 1851 that marks the point where the United States and Mexico agreed on a border after the Mexican War.
The area surrounding the monument, which is accommodated within a cutout in the existing steel-mesh fence, has long been a popular spot for families to gather and visit with relatives on the Mexican side.
At a meeting with Border Patrol officials Tuesday, Border Field State Park Superintendent Clay Phillips and several other attendees were informed that plans had changed.
“They told us that there would be no public access of any kind or any form,” Phillips said. “I can say I was surprised, since the Border Patrol had designed the project with a pedestrian gate and with a walkway to the monument, and at least verbally made some indication that there would be some kind of controlled public access.”
Until recently, state and federal officials had been working out the details of public access to a roughly 40-foot-wide space surrounding the monument.
Lloyd Easterling, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C., said the change of heart came after federal officials concluded that it would be too difficult for agents to monitor a public gathering place between the two fences.
“It would be requiring our agents to constantly monitor interactions at the primary fence, watching for people passing small items back and forth,” Easterling said.
Easterling said that while visitors frequently pass innocuous items such as food back and forth through small openings, others pass fraudulent documents or drugs.
For those who hoped to return to Friendship Park once construction was finished in May, the reversal is a disappointment.
“I may be in denial. I am not willing to accept it quite yet,” said Daniel Watman, an organizer of Border Meetup, which has conducted yoga, surfing and other events at the fence to promote cultural interaction.
Easterling said that once the second fence is complete, there will be no access to the primary fence at the beach, either. Visitors to Border Field State Park will be able to see through the two fences into Mexico, but only people on the Mexican side will be able to access the monument.
Phillips said state parks officials are hoping there is a way to negotiate a middle ground that would allow some public access without compromising security.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/09/1m9park002037-popular-border-spot-wont-be-accessib/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)