Friends of Friendship Park Condemn CBP Plan for Wall Expansion
The Friends of Friendship Park reject and condemn the most recent proposal to erect 30-foot walls at Friendship Park. The plans announced yesterday by officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection are antithetical to the Park’s original purpose to celebrate cross-border friendship.
Thirty-foot walls now line almost the entire border between San Diego and Tijuana. The only stretch not yet walled this way is the westernmost mesa top. This “Monument Mesa” is home to Friendship Park, a meeting place of great historical, cultural, and social significance.
The CBP proposal announced yesterday would erect two 30-foot walls across over 95 percent of the remaining 0.3 miles of the border. The proposal to “dip” the primary border wall to 18 feet for a small stretch near the center of Friendship Park is a token and inadequate gesture.
PHOTO: Friendship Park
CBP plans to renew public access to this site after construction does not offset the visual, practical, and symbolic damage that more 30-foot walls would cause. If implemented as proposed, this plan will:
• further desecrate the binational character of the park;
• further undermine cross-border connection and friendship between the peoples of the United States and Mexico;
• further obstruct the cross-border and ocean vistas in both nations; and
• further destroy yet again the Binational Friendship Garden of Native Plants, this time on both sides of the border.
This proposal will create the worst design Friendship Park has ever seen. It will be a step backward, rather than forward, in pursuit of the vision of “International Friendship Park” that First Lady Pat Nixon announced at the inauguration of California’s Border Field State Park on August 18, 1971.
Friends of Friendship Park has been advocating for more public access to the U.S. side of Friendship Park for nearly two decades. We appreciate that the pause in construction implemented in August 2022 afforded the opportunity for community constituents to share their concerns. Hundreds of faith leaders, creative professionals, educators, and organizational allies joined our call for the current (18-foot) walls at Friendship Park to be repaired, not replaced. So, too, did our elected officials at every level of government in the United States.
Sadly, our voices appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Leaders of the San Diego Border Patrol are not the only stakeholders at Friendship Park, and they should not be allowed to dictate the terms of the Park’s future in almost complete contradiction to the desires of other stakeholders. We call on our allies and elected officials once again to stand up for the future of Friendship Park and express their concerns directly to San Diego Sector, U.S. Border Patrol.
The Mexican side of the park is already joyously well-utilized. The people of Mexico host a “fiesta” every weekend at Friendship Park. The people of the United States should be allowed to join the party, and the U.S. federal government should celebrate and support the opportunity to reaffirm the fundamental truth that our nations are friends, not enemies.
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