On this Presidents Day, the Friends of Friendship Park had a question for President Joe Biden about his legacy.
Does he want to be known as the president who finished Donald Trump’s border wall or as the president who saved Friendship Park?
"This should not be a difficult choice," said John Fanestil from Friends of Friendship Park coalition. "As part of his successful run for the White House, President Biden promised that not another foot of wall will be built on the U.S.-Mexico Border. ... But this week, on-site at Friendship Park, construction teams began laying the groundwork for the completion of Donald Trump's border wall at the most historic location on the U.S.-Mexico Border."
Last week, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) restarted the work on replacing the fence at Friendship that it said has fallen into disrepair.
"CBP is in the process of modifying the contract for the replacement of the primary fence, based on the approved path forward, which includes modifying the height at the approximately 60 feet adjacent to Friendship Park to 18 feet tall," the agency said in a statement last week.
Fanestil said that's not exactly true. He said CBP will erect two 30-foot fences around the 0.3 mile of Friendship Park, except for in a section that is 60 feet long.
CBP, however, said Friendship Park is roughly 60 feet, and the surrounding area is Border Field State Park, which is run by the state of California. The latter is getting the taller fence.
Friends of Friendship Park held a rally at the border with a bit of performative theater Monday to show the effect the fence will have on the park.
“This is one of the great tragedies of these 30-foot walls as they eliminate the views in and out of (the) space," Fanestil said. "On the Mexican side right now, at Friendship Park, from a lookout, you can see all the way up the San Diego coast to downtown San Diego and Point Loma. On a clear day, all the way up the Southern California coast.”
The 30-foot steel fence is see-through but designed in a way that, looking sideways, it becomes opaque, like a solid wall. And that, the group says, will ruin the experience of the park for visitors.
“It doesn't make sense because 30 feet at Friendship Park will completely change the visual landscape,” said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee, and it will lead to more people hurt or dying from falls off the fence.
"There's been a fivefold increase in people going to the trauma centers locally," he said. "That is a result of people climbing the border walls and falling as a result of that throughout the 60 miles of the San Diego sector. It's likely the case that that will increase wherever there are 30-foot border walls, including that possibility at Friendship Park.”
He said the community has spoken, with more than 1,000 letters sent to CBP saying the 30-foot fence doesn't make sense at Friendship Park and won't increase border security in the area.
"We hope that President Biden has reflection about this," Rios said. "He has a choice to make, ultimately."
