Mexico & the U.S.: what kind of border? A new fence to deter illegal crossings from Mexico symbolizes the intense debate in the U.S. over immigration.

• Author: Archibold, Randal C.
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

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During this period of controversy over immigration--with federal agents routing out illegal workers from meat-processing plants and other businesses, record levels of deportations, and border walls getting taller and longer--Friendship Park in Imperial Beach has stood out as a spot where international neighbors can chat easily over the fence that separates California from Mexico right up to the Pacific Ocean.

Or through it, anyway. Families and friends, some unable to cross the border because of legal or immigration trouble, exchange kisses, tamales, and news through gaps in the tattered chain-link fence. It all takes place near a stone monument commemorating the area where Mexican and American surveyors began demarcating the border nearly 160 years ago, when the Mexican-American War ended.

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"It's hard to see each other, to touch," says Manuel Meza, an American citizen sharing lunch through the fence with his wife, who was deported back to Mexico and now drives three hours for visits at the fence. "It's strange, but our love is stronger than the fence."

But new border fencing that the Department of Homeland Security hopes will help curtail illegal crossings is going to slice through the park, limiting the visiting along the current fence. While more agents and fencing have pushed many illegal crossings to the deserts to the east and the Pacific to the west, people still climb over, tunnel under, or cut through the fence.

IMPACT OF 9/11

Things were different when George W. Bush was elected President in 2000. Both Mexicans and Americans had high hopes for the situation along the border. Bush had been Governor of Texas, a border state with close ties to Mexico, and seemed to understand how tightly the people and the economy on both sides of the border were linked. In addition, Bush had long favored a guest-worker program that would allow Mexicans to legally enter the U.S. to work.

But the post-9/11 emphasis on border security, along with concerns about the impact of immigration on the U.S. economy, complicated the situation. In 2007, Congress failed to pass an immigration bill that would have put many illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. Washington also increased border patrols, ordered tougher steps against employers who hire illegal workers, and authorized the construction of 700 miles of border fence (bringing the total to about 800 miles of the 2,000-mile border).

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