IT’D BE A SHAME TO LOSE THE PARK’S HUMAN CONNECTIONS

A recently published report by the Mexican Consulate in San Diego delivers important data on the increase of injuries and deaths of Mexican nationals attempting to cross into the San Diego border sector. According to the figures, 80 percent of the 626 injuries and deaths during fiscal years 2020 to 2022 are related to the existence of a border wall. It is important to recognize that the report only reflects the experiences of one nationality and not those of other people of different nationalities who have also been affected by injuries and, in some cases, death.

Undoubtedly, the construction of the wall has been one of the many ways to justify funds dedicated to the militarization of the border. Building walls is a hard evidence of the “protection” and reinforcement that is continuously politicized. It is also true that regardless of which party is in power, Democratic or Republican, both have a consensus to guard the border and that the billions of dollars Congress provides every year to do so is not seen as enough.

This policy of higher and reinforced walls is what’s trying to be imposed at Friendship Park. U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s main argument for why it wants to impose a 30-foot wall in the park is security. Donald Trump’s administration used executive orders to allocate funding to fulfill his most longed-for promise to build the wall. However, some court decisions didn’t go his way and as a result millions of dollars for the 30-foot-high wall were put on hold. Then President Joe Biden came to office two years ago with the promise to not build “another foot of wall.”

During Biden’s recent visit to Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador publicly thanked Biden for not building “even one meter” of Trump’s wall. Unfortunately, days later, CBP formalized the news that it would begin replacement work in the park.

The threat to replace and further elevate the wall at Friendship Park will bring even more death and disgrace to our region. An April 2022 study by UC San Diego Health researchers demonstrated the severity of injuries and increased fatalities caused by the areas of the border fence that have been replaced and raised to 30 feet.

Tragedies such as the Aug. 3 death of a Mexican national who attempted to climb the 30-foot wall near the San Ysidro gateway will be inevitable. According to an agent who responded to the accident and witnessed the fall, the man suddenly lost control and his bearings. By reinforcing the wall, the agency expressly looks to cause disorientation and confusion due to the height, thus provoking falls that claim lives or produce irreparable injuries.

It is a real shame and deep disappointment that the Biden administration would give the go-ahead to Trump’s 30-foot wall at Friendship Park. As long as CBP and Border Patrol agents continue using Title 42 of the 1944 Public Health Service Act to deny the right to seek asylum to so many migrants on grounds related to the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme and desperate measures like scaling the wall of death are going to happen.

Families who for years have met in the park and the binational community of our region reject and denounce this plan. For generations, this park has witnessed celebrations of reunions, weddings, baptisms, holiday celebrations called posadas and the creation of a living native-plant garden on both the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border.

Just before the agency closed access to the park in 2019, a family arrived with a lady in a wheelchair. The woman seemed to be taking her last breaths after being diagnosed with cancer. I and other volunteers had arrived early that morning to work in the garden. The family asked for our help to seek permission from the Border Patrol agent so that the woman could approach the wall and touch her brother, whom she had not seen for more than 12 years, one last time.

The agent authorized the encounter, and, across the garden, the siblings held hands for the last time.

For the tears and desires of the people who were able to connect through that wall during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and Trump, and hope to do so under Biden, let’s continue the fight to save Friendship Park and prove that this space not only sees misfortune and pain, but also lights up with friendship, smiles and hope.

For generations, this park has witnessed celebrations of reunions, weddings, baptisms, posadas and a living native-plant garden.

is a volunteer with Friends of Friendship Park and has advocated for human rights in the San Diego-Tijuana region for the past 20 years. She lives in South San Diego. Editor’s note: This has been translated from Spanish by a member of the editorial board.