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U.S. side of cross-border site has been closed since 2020; funding for reopening
At a section of border fence in San Diego on Saturday, where dozens of people had gathered to mark Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter before Christ’s birth, a reverend asked attendees to raise their pinkie fingers to share peace.
It was a nod to the days when the binational Christmas posada was held at Friendship Park, a historic site straddling the U.S.-Mexico border where people could meet with loved ones, even if they were separated by the international fence and contact was limited to the tips of fingers.
“It is about honoring those we cannot greet with a hug or even a handshake,” explained the Rev. Maria Santa Cruz of Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Church in America.
Once again, the Mexican and American Posada Sin Fronteras, or Posada Without Borders, was forced to be held in separate locations — in Tijuana, on the Mexican side of Friendship Park, and in San Diego at a spot a few miles away known as Whiskey 8, where volunteers have been offering assistance to arriving migrants.
The U.S. side of Friendship Park has been closed to the public since 2020. It was supposed to reopen once its aging border wall had been replaced, but that project sits incomplete due to federal funding complications. And with the incoming Trump administration, advocates say there’s growing uncertainty over the government’s plans for the park.
Friendship Park, founded more than 50 years ago by then-first lady Pat Nixon, is within a federal zone under U.S. Border Patrol jurisdiction, located in the most southwestern corner of the U.S.
Over the years, the historic site became a meeting place for families on both sides of the border separated by immigration matters. For some, it was the only place where they could be reunited despite being separated by the border fence.
It was closed during the pandemic under the first Trump administration and later failed to reopen under President Joe Biden due to what the Border Patrol claimed were staffing issues.
In 2023, the federal government announced a project to replace the primary border fence at Friendship Park and vowed to both reopen access from the U.S. side and restore a binational garden at the site once construction was completed.
The project replaced the border fence in the binational park area with a 30-foot barrier in all but one stretch. The top was covered to make it more difficult to climb, and the area where families used to meet across the fence and touch each other’s fingertips was reinforced with multi-layered mesh that now makes contact practically impossible.
However, early this year, just as the project was nearing completion, construction was halted as a result of a court order in the southern district of Texas that barred the Biden administration from using funds previously appropriated by Congress, according to a letter sent by U.S. officials to the park’s advocates.
The case alleged that the Biden administration failed to use the funding to build new border walls and instead used it for repair projects on existing barriers, among other things.
A preliminary injunction, issued in March, prohibits the government from using the funds for “mitigation and remediation efforts, repair of existing barriers, so-called system attribute installation at existing sites, or other similar purposes.”
Such expenses would require a different allocation of funds.
In the letter sent this month to the Friends of Friendship Park, an advocacy group, top Customs and Border Protection official Troy A. Miller explained the hang-up.
“There is an approximately 100-foot gap in the new border barrier, in addition to other system attributes that remain incomplete, such as anti-climb topping and road work, as well as the restoration of the binational garden,” wrote Miller, who is performing the duties of the commissioner.
“Due to the incomplete infrastructure, as well as USBP’s operational conditions in the area, it is not safe to reopen Friendship Park until the project is completed,” he added.
Miller reiterated in the letter, which the nonprofit shared with the Union-Tribune, that the aim is to complete the work as soon as possible, “once we receive the appropriate funding to do so, and to fulfill our commitment to providing access to Friendship Park when it is deemed operationally safe to do so.”
CBP did not immediately respond to questions about Friendship Park.
As a new federal administration approaches, doubts are mounting about what’s next for the U.S. side of the binational park.
“We have received no communications that would indicate what posture Trump Administration officials may adopt with regard to the future of Friendship Park,” the nonprofit said in a statement.
“Our experience teaches us that officials based in Washington, D.C. — constrained by an impoverished understanding of life on the border and by ever-shifting changes in leadership at the local and federal levels of government — are unable to do right by Friendship Park.
“A site that should be a source of pride for the peoples of the United States, Mexico, and the Kumeyaay nation looks more like a prison than a park,” the group added.
The Rev. Santa Cruz, who has been going to the San Diego posada for 25 years, said that it is sad not to see the faces of those who participate south of the border. “But we are united in heart and spirit,” she added.
Pedro Rios, director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Program of the American Friends Service Committee, lamented that for several years they have not been able to commemorate the truly binational event as they would have liked.
“For us, the commitment remains to continue to hold the posada to reiterate that the story of the birth of Jesus Christ is a story of migration,” Rios said.
In Tijuana, attendees followed a procession reenacting Mary and Joseph’s journey in the days before Christ’s birth, among other traditions.
In San Diego, participants sang traditional songs such as “Silent Night” in both English and Spanish.
When it came time to sing “Las Posadas,” the group couldn’t exchange verses with the people in Tijuana, as they once have.
