THE BIDENS SHOULD VISIT THIS SPOT TO UNDERSTAND WHY TO PROTECT IT
The imminent construction of two 30-foot Trumpera walls across Friendship Park at the southwest corner of the U.S. on the San Diego-Tijuana border will destroy one of the most historic and sacred places along our southern border. We must save the only existing binational park along the U.S.-Mexico border from destruction.
For generations, people have gathered at Friendship Park on both sides of the border to meet with friends and family “across the line.” The spirit of human connection is palpable at family reunions, at weekly Border Church services, when volunteers team up to tend the plants in the Binational Friendship Garden, and when special events are held such as the Posada sin Fronteras, a venerated Christmas tradition that re-enacts Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter.
The planned 30-foot walls will degrade all functions of Friendship Park. They will obliterate crossborder and ocean vistas in both countries, create shade conditions that make it very difficult to grow native plants, and make it all but impossible to continue to hold binational worship services.
Unified leadership can save Friendship Park.
President Joe Biden promised Americans that “not another foot” of the Trump wall would be built. And now two 30-foot walls which would extinguish any remnant of park-like quality at Friendship Park have been approved by his administration.
Representatives of the Biden administration will tell you that this is “just” a “replacement” project, simply swapping existing, failing infrastructure with equivalent new construction. But even a child can see the lie in this parody. The existing barriers (a wall and a fence) are 18 feet high, not 30 feet high. Constructing two new walls at nearly double the existing height is not replacement. It is finishing the job for Donald Trump.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection will try to characterize the current plans as a compromise because the height of the primary wall will dip to 18 feet adjacent to the historic border monument. The product of six months of consultation with local stakeholders is that 2 percent of the length of the border walls will be the existing height of 18 feet, and the remaining 98 percent will be 30 feet. This is neither acceptable nor a compromise.
Border Patrol officials tell us that they need 30-foot walls to keep staff and the public safe, and yet when asked, the agency can provide not a single documented instance of injury or harm onsite at Friendship Park to either Border Patrol agents or members of the public. The truth is that Friendship Park is already safe and secure.
On Jan. 24, Border Patrol officials refused to open the door to their offices to receive a letter from the Friends of Friendship Park.
How can we trust the San Diego Border Patrol? It promised to keep Friendship Park open, but it has been closed for more than three years. It promised to repair the Binational Garden after an agent destroyed it with a bulldozer three years ago, but no reparations have been made. It promised to work in good faith with the Friends of Friendship Park. Yet when we (literally) knocked on the agency’s door, it remained closed. It has not upheld its promises. And yet we are asked to trust that it knows what is best for this place of friendship and goodwill.
Gov. Gavin Newsom should work to protect Californians’ right to access California’s border park. Why is our governor willing to call attention to the immigration follies of other governors, but not willing to stand up for the people of his state and their right to access Friendship Park?
Californians deserve courageous leadership.
First lady Pat Nixon visited Friendship Park in 1971, and was so moved by the experience that she asked her Secret Service protection detail to snip the three strands of wire that separated her from the people in Mexico, so that the dedication of the park could become a truly binational event representing the best in all of us — our desire to connect with each other. Just one visit to this historic location inspired Mrs. Nixon to state, “I hope there won’t be a fence too long here.”
It’s time for President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Newsom to have the courage to visit Friendship Park, because they can’t protect what they don’t understand.
It’s time for Rep. Juan Vargas, along with Sens. Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein, to persuade the Biden administration to stop construction of 30-foot walls and to save our nation’s only U.S.–Mexico border park.
It’s time that our leaders stop turning away from Friendship Park, and instead turn towards the promise and hope it represents.
What are they afraid of?
One visit to this site inspired Mrs. Nixon to state, ‘I hope there won’t be a fence too long here.’
Kuczenski has been a volunteer with the Friends of Friendship Park and Border Church since 2021. She lives in University City.