Last year, an unauthorized immigrant named Jose Cesar Salinas was arrested at International Friendship Park while visiting his elderly mother.
That park, which rests atop a hill at the U.S.-Mexico border that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, is one of the only places in the country where people in the U.S. can visit relatives in Mexico who are not allowed to cross the border.
It is the kind of place where a grandfather from Mexico can meet his American grandchild, or an immigrant daughter can say hello to her deported father, said Adriana Jasso of the American Friends Service Committee.
“The space has become iconic and unique because it provides people with the ability to see their loved ones on the other side,” she said.
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The park’s history among the immigrant community is part of what made Salinas’ arrest stand out, Jasso added.
Advocates say that arrests at the park are rare but they do happen. The risk of arrest for unauthorized immigrants there is so high that advocates who organize events in the park often warn unauthorized visitors of the possibility of arrest.
“If they tell me they are undocumented, I will tell them it is extremely risky to go,” said John Fenestil of Friends of Friendship Park.
Salinas’ arrest didn’t make headlines last year. News of the arrest only came to light last month thanks to a letter he wrote from Otay Mesa Detention Center to a nonprofit that visits detained immigrants throughout the country.
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According to his letter, Salinas was arrested a few days after Mother’s Day 2018 while trying to see his mother. During the visit a Border Patrol agent asked Salinas about his legal status and arrested him.
International Friendship Park is a special place because Border Patrol officials approve of people meeting through the border wall, said Fanestil, who has also hosted a binational church service there since 2011.
Those designated hours are between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays — although people are limited to 10-minute visits. Those visits used to last 25 minutes, he said.
While the agency allows visitations to happen, Border Patrol has never said they will stop enforcing immigration law. Therefore, unauthorized immigrants risk being arrested in and around the park during visits.
Customs and Border Protection officials agreed with advocates in that arrests in the park are rare.
In a statement, CBP spokesman Ralph DeSio said the agency allows people to gather, “in the spirit of cooperation and community, and ask that people conduct themselves appropriately, being courteous and cooperative while the agent assigned to monitor those coming in and out use the area.”
Additionally, DeSio noted that generally speaking, agents do not specifically check IDs or conduct field interviews in the park unless there is a specific reason to do so.
Normally, the main reason agents approach visitors at the park is, “usually the result of that person attracting the agent in some way; or not adhering to the rules, being uncooperative when the agent asks the patron to limit their time to make room for other patrons, etc.,” DeSio said.
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CBP also said that unauthorized immigrants have crossed the border illegally near the park and tried to blend in with visitors.
Part of the risk of going to International Friendship Park is visitors have to cross Border Field State Park to get there. The state part is one of the most heavily surveilled places in the United States, which presents a risk to unauthorized immigrants, advocates said.
Additionally, during the fall and winter months, roads leading up to International Friendship Park are routinely closed because of flooding. That means visitors need to walk nearly two miles to get to the area of the park where cross-border visitations take place, Fenestil added.
The majority of people who visit relatives in the park have legal status in the United States, but risk losing that status if they leave the country. They include people with pending immigration court cases, DACA recipients, or parolees.
That group of people have no risk of being arrested at the park.
Despite the risks, undocumented immigrants often say they are willing to take their chances in order to spend some time with their families.
Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Salinas was released from Otay Mesa Detention Center after posting bond on Sept. 11 this year.
2019-12-30 13:02:05Z
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2019-12-30/unauthorized-immigrant-arrested-at-international-friendship-park-letter-claims
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