By Jack Herrera, Pacific Standard, June 27, 2019.
TIJUANA, Mexico — The 14-mile wall that runs along the northern edge of Tijuana doesn't stop when it arrives at the Pacific, but continues out into the ocean for about 100 yards, along the imaginary extension of the border between Mexico and the United States. Out in the waves, the prison-style steel bollards and razor wire look severe, but also absurd. A strong swimmer could get out and around the wall's far end without too much trouble. In the course of that swim, however, an array of motion sensors, cameras, and pressure pads would alert Border Patrol. Agents would arrive on land quickly, in SUVs from the east and quad bikes from the north. The idea behind the wall is simple: Even if it is penetrable, it can deter would-be border crossers by guaranteeing that they'll be caught once they get to the other side.
But the wall—and Border Patrol—was built on the assumption that border crossers don't want to be caught. Today, like the immigration system itself, that assumption has collapsed. On a cold day in mid-December, about a month after two caravans arrived in Tijuana from Central America, families gathered on the beach on the Mexican side of the wall to surrender themselves to Border Patrol. Something about the ocean pattern, some accident of gravity, had pulled the tide unusually low, and a hole about the size of an elementary schooler's desk had appeared right where the wall met the ocean. A father tugged back some of the razor wire that was placed on the base of the wall as his family crawled through. On the other side, they held hands—father, mother, son in a line—and walked up the beach, where border agents had arrived in three white SUVs. The child looked about 10 years old; his sweater had cartoons on it. His mother had lost one of her shoes. They didn't converse with the agents waiting for them, and got straight into the back seat of a Border Patrol car.
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