SAN DIEGO, CA – The Friends of Friendship Park reject and condemn the most recent proposal to erect 30-foot walls in Friendship Park. The plans announced Jan. 17, 2023, by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are antithetical to the Park’s original purpose of celebrating cross-border friendship.
Thirty-foot walls now line almost the entire border between San Diego and Tijuana. The only section that is not yet walled in this way is the top of the westernmost mesa. This “Monument Table” houses the Parque de la Amistad (Friendship Park), a meeting place of great historical, cultural and social significance.
The CBP proposal announced Jan. 17 would erect two 30-foot walls on more than 95 percent of the remaining 0.3 miles of the border. The proposal to “submerge” the main border wall 18 feet for a short stretch near the center of Friendship Park is an inappropriate and symbolic gesture.
CBP plans to renew public access to this site after construction fails to 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 the cross-border connection and friendship between the peoples of the United States and Mexico;
• further obstruct transboundary and ocean views in both nations; and
• further destroy the Binational Friendship Garden of Native Plants, this time on both sides of the border.
This proposal will create the worst design ever seen in Parque de la Amistad. It will be a step back, rather than forward, in pursuing the vision of “International Friendship Park” that First Lady Pat Nixon announced at the groundbreaking of California’s Border Field State Park on August 18, 1971.
The Friends of Friendship Park have been advocating for greater public access to the US side of Friendship Park for nearly two decades. We appreciate that the construction pause implemented in August 2022 provided an opportunity for community constituents to share their concerns. Hundreds of religious leaders, creative professionals, educators, and allied organizations joined our call for the current (18-foot) walls at Friendship Park to be repaired, not replaced. So did our elected officials at all levels of US government.
Unfortunately, our voices seem to have fallen on deaf ears. San Diego Border Patrol leaders are not the only stakeholders in Friendship Park, and they should not be allowed to dictate the terms of the Park’s future in almost total contradiction to the wishes of other stakeholders. We call on our allies and elected officials once again to advocate for the future of Friendship Park and voice your concerns directly to the San Diego Sector, US Border Patrol.
The Mexican side of the park is already happily well used. The people of Mexico organize a “fiesta” every weekend in the Parque de la Amistad. The people of the United States must be allowed to join the party, and the United States federal government must welcome and support the opportunity to reaffirm the fundamental truth that our nations are friends, not enemies.
