SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Dan Watman says he and fellow supporters of Friends of Friendship Park are tired of “asking for breadcrumbs” from the Border Patrol saying the agency has failed to keep its promises to reopen a popular border park just above the Pacific Ocean.
For decades, Friendship Park has been the site where families and friends could gather and interact with the border wall between them with Border Patrol agents monitoring access.
Watman says the park has been off limits since the start of the COVID-19 era when Customs and Border Protection promised to grant access to the area once the pandemic ended as long as it had enough agents available.
When that didn’t happen, the agency said the park would remain closed until two new 30-foot border barriers were finished making it safer for the public, migrants, and agents patrolling the area.
Once construction ended, Border Patrol stated that due to a surge in illegal migration, agents were too busy to monitor public access at the park, according to Watman.
But now, with historic lows in apprehensions and encounters with migrants at the border, the park remains out of bounds, much to Watman’s concern and disappointment.
“What they promised was some kind of access inside this prison-like infrastructure. We thought they might stick to their word on that and allow some kind of access where people could have restricted contact through the primary barrier,” Watman said. “But then they put razor wire and concertina wire on top of the areas where they promised to allow people in, so it’s a pretty good indication they don’t have any plans to let anybody in.”
Watman told Border Report he and the others have come to realize Border Patrol has no intention of reopening the park.
“We’re done trying to convince them to give us bread crumbs, we want a park,” he said. “That’s kind of why we continue to grow the community, the garden and beautify the park on the Mexican side to give an example and an invitation to the U.S. side to join.”
Watman stated they are also pressuring the state of California to maintain the only roadway into the area known as Monument Mesa where Border Field State Park is located, which is home to Friendship Park.
“It’s time for advocacy on Border Field State Park so they fix the road and people can come out to monument mesa and get within 150 feet of Mexico.”
Border Report contacted California’s State Parks about the likelihood of fixing the road and providing more access to the area, but our emails were not returned.
Border Report also contacted the Border Patrol and CBP about the likelihood of reopening Friendship Park, but they did not respond.
