A wall apart: divided families meet at a single, tiny spot on the US-Mexico border

A wall apart: divided families meet at a single, tiny spot on the US-Mexico border

In an election darkened by Cruz and Trump’s divisive rhetoric, the scene at a brief stretch of border fence known as Friendship Park paints an urgent picture

Paul Lewis in San Diego and Tijuana
@PaulLewis
Tuesday 29 March 2016 07.20 EDT

There are 1,954 miles of border separating the US and Mexico but only one tiny stretch, measuring no more than 15 meters wide, where families are sanctioned to touch fingertips through a steel-mesh fence.

This spot, where the Pacific ocean joins the sandy shoreline, and where San Diego becomes Tijuana, is where US Customs and Border Protection allows families torn apart by an unforgiving immigration system their own, fleeting connection.

It is a wafer-thin and slowly shrinking no man’s land, where border agents will look the other way as Mexican-American families with mixed legal status convene in the baking sun.

In an election year which has been dominated by hardline anti-immigration and anti-Mexican rhetoric, the encounters along this tiny segment of border have been given a new sense of urgency.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/29/us-mexico-border-wall-trump-cruz-immigration-friendship-park