The rusty fence that runs between San Diego County and Tijuana, extending into the Pacific surf as a line of high steel bars, stands for all the ironies and contradictions of United States border relations with Mexico. Built about 15 years ago with military landing mats, and easily scaled, the old fence is now being reinforced by a stronger and higher second fence, with a road between the two for the Border Patrol. The aim is to stop all foot traffic across the final reach of the Tijuana River. The Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of the Border Barrier Project, working with the Border Patrol and the California National Guard. Supporters hope the fence, which is to stretch 14 miles eastward to Otay Mountain, will reduce crime and allow them to hike and ride horses in border parklands without fear of meeting unwelcome strangers.
Opponents are outraged and dismayed.
The fence is not only a Berlin Wall, they say, an insult to our neighbor, but an environmental disaster. If built as now planned, this project will undermine years of patient work by numerous agencies and individuals to protect and restore one of California's major coastal estuaries. And it will put behind bars the monument erected in 1851 on the border line, overlooking the ocean near Mexico's northernmost lighthouse, to commemorate the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Prompted by individual citizen initiatives, government agencies brought together scientists, technical experts, educators and others to work across the border on watershed issues. The 1848 boundary ignores local geography.