By Allan Vargas
“I hope there won’t be a fence too long here.”
— First Lady Pat Nixon Dedicating Friendship Park, 1971
“Mr. Biden, tear down this wall!”
— Enrique Morones, Founder of Gente Unida, 2022
U.S.-MEXICO BORDER NEAR IMPERIAL BEACH—Friendship Park seems a lot less friendly. Once a happy half acre straddling la frontera near Imperial Beach, the park born of idealism seems doomed to succumb to the latest wave of immigration phobia.
In January, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced resumption of construction of a new 30-foot fence surrounding the park. Advocates for the park say that will essentially end the dream of an international gathering place between a pair of erstwhile allies that more often act like frenemies.
Border Patrol officials argue that increasing pressure on the southern border requires the Trump-era wall be completed. They also claim that a meeting area for friends and family between the border walls would remain untouched, though locked up. New fencing will only allow family members to touch fingertips, according to Mona Kuczenski of Friends of Friendship Park.
“I think everyone who has been to Friendship Park and understands its importance was absolutely horrified by the proposal,” she said.
BINATIONAL BIPARTISANSHIP
In 1971 the idea of a binational park similar to Peace Arch Border Crossing at the Canadian border in Blaine, Washington was about as controversial as Charlie Brown or mustard on hotdogs. Republicans and Democrats loved the idea and conservative president Richard Nixon’s wife Pat inaugurated the park. It was a different border then, said Gente Unida founder Enrique Morones.
“Much of the border was the same in 1971 as it was in 1848,” he said. “A single strand of wire was the border at Playas de Tijuana and Border Field State Park. You could meet family and friends at the border.”
Morones said the days of meandering into Mexico along the beach for tacos or paletas came to an end during Operation Gatekeeper in the mid-1990s.
“That’s really when everything began to change,” he said.
A 14-mile metal wall built with surplus military steel grate platforms vivisected San Diego and Tijuana, forcing migrants into the dangerous eastern mountains and deserts. Friendship Park remained open, but only when the Border Patrol opened it. The walls were closing in.
On September 11, 2001 the gates slammed shut when the border was sealed following terrorist attacks on the East Coast. Militarization of the once-sleepy border was underway.
Daniel Watman of Friends of Friendship Park and manager of the Binational Garden said the hulking 30-foot walls would all but destroy the park’s aura created by the visionaries of the 1970s.
“When people are separated, divided, they become suspicious because they don’t know (the people on the other side),” he said. “The original park created a new narrative as to how people interact. Here, in this place, it was people united.”
Watman said the Friends have not given up.
“We are having community meetings to raise awareness,” he said. “We are talking with (local) legislators who have Friendship Park in their jurisdiction. They are very supportive.”
Kuczenski and Watman said they are now locked in on bigger political targets.
“We are urging Gov. Newsom to tell President Biden to stop building this wall,” said Watman. “This (sealing off of the border) does not align with California values.”
Watman said the Friends of Friendship Park has had success raising awareness, and has made inroads with Newsom and Biden.
Kuczenski said she remains cynical.
“(This large wall is) exactly what Donald Trump designed and what Donald Trump built along other portions of the border,” she said. “And the discouraging thing is that Joe Biden is finishing the job for Donald Trump.”
Time is slipping away for the Friends and their allies. Construction on the wall through the park is underway and scheduled for completion in six months. Mrs. Nixon would likely be disappointed.