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Construction to change border park's dynamics

By John Gamboa

October 29, 2008

The border between the United States and Mexico has been a major flashpoint of debate since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Border Field State Park, in the southwestern most corner of the contiguous United States where a fence meets the ocean, is home to this debate.

Already in its early phases, the Department of Homeland Security is constructing a new fence that threatens the environment, and the socio-economic stability of people in both San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.

At the Friendship Park, located at Border Field State Park, residents on both sides can talk to each other and exchange cross-cultural anecdotes, and members of families meet those who cannot cross to the other side.

The park is anchored at the center by a monument commemorating the end of the Mexican-American War, which serves as a reminder of the two nations to all its visitors of the history.

“People go there to make friends across the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Dan Watman, organizer for Border Meetup, a group that has organized events between both sides of the fence for the last 10 years. “We do all sorts of bi-national events like salsa classes, poetry readings and language exchanges.”

The Border Meetup group has events between one and two times a month. Very soon construction at the park may interrupt these events. New construction will consist of multi-tiered fences, with a 90-foot gap in the center for agents to drive through, according to Mark Endicott, Border Patrol Agent assigned to the Public Affairs Office.

Endicott said appropriations stem from “congressionally mandated construction in 1996.”

He said the project consists of 14 miles of new fences from Smuggler’s Gulch, west of San Ysidro, Calif., to the Pacific Ocean, and the recent phase is to finish the remaining six miles by May 2009.

This new fence will not reach the beach because of the difficulty of construction in the water.

Notwithstanding, construction in the region will threaten the neighboring Tijuana Estuary and the cross-cultural exchanges at the park. As of now, there is only an orange caution fence in the space where there are plans for construction in the region.

“Phase 1 of the construction is to put a gate in the wall by the friendship circle,” said Watman.

Endicott said as of now, gate access to Friendship Park is under review by the Border Patrol and the state park system.

Both Watman and Endicott said as of now it is unknown who will control access to the park’s gate when all the construction is finished. While many people only visit the park to visit with family members to the south, the Border Patrol has come across some problems during these visits.

“It’s a good thing people [visit family at the park],” Endicott said, “but false documents and contraband are passed through the fence.”

Others use the park as viewpoint before crossing to American side.

Standing on the Mexico side of the Friendship Park, Jaime Ramirez, a former resident of Imperial Beach, Calif. who was deported back to Mexico a few weeks ago, doesn’t see the fence as a problem.

“There will always be a way to get across,” said Ramirez. “At night, I’m going to swim around the fence over there and walk back to my family.”

Ramirez said his wife and two children (who are American citizens) have been waiting for him for over two weeks to come back.

“My job is still waiting for me,” he said. “But I have nothing here in Tijuana.”

While Ramirez is only one person, in the past smugglers have exploited the construction and gaps of the old fence.

In one incident in August 2008 according to Endicott, Border Patrol agents discovered a vehicle imitating a water truck from Kiewit Pacific Corporation, the fence’s contractor, full of illegal immigrants on the American side of the border.

Despite this single event, Watman said the representation of the Friendship Park in the media has been skewed. The Washington Post, which focused on the violence in the park, quoted Watman in an Oct. 19 article. He said nothing could be further from the truth.

“I haven’t seen anything happen there, ever,” Watman said of the Friendship Park, “The worst I’ve seen is somebody trying to cross.”