“Martin” (whose real name has been omitted) peers in at the United States through gridiron mesh as a Methodist pastor, Catholic priests and advocates of immigration reform raise their hands to the U.S./Mexico border fence in prayer. It’s Easter Sunday and he is waiting for a miracle; he went to Mexico for his father’s funeral and can’t get back.
There are two fences where the border meets the beach, it is forbidden to go between. However, for four hours on weekend afternoons an extra border patrol agent is deployed to the area, designated Friendship Park. People on both sides of the border flock to this location, border patrol agents do not demand proof of citizenship, empathetic to the fact that this is the only time some undocumented immigrants get to visit their families. Here on March 30 Pastor John performed communion and lead bilingual prayers for Martin.
Pastor John spoke with me about Martin:
“He couldn’t resist the temptation to go back to the funeral,” Pastor John said. “Every time he’s gone back it’s getting more and more difficult to regain entry so he’s now been stuck in Tijuana since Jan. 4.”
Martin moved from the Mexican state Nuevo Leon to San Diego in 1978 at the age of 19 where he found work in construction. A couple of years later he was convicted for his involvement in a bar fight.
Now, trapped in Mexico away from his family, these weekends at Friendship Park are some of the only times Martin can see his wife. He is the breadwinner of his family, his wife and three children are U.S. citizens.
In Tijuana he can only make $115 a week for 55 hours of work, an amount he can make in one day doing similar work in San Diego. Martin’s wife is epileptic and without her husband’s assistance, has had to file for welfare.
“It is that conviction which has disqualified him… [from] the present time from regularizing his status.” said Pastor John. “Normally with marriage to a U.S. citizen he would be able to become documented.”
That was 30 years ago.
“I was young and stupid,” he told Pastor John. “I am now a very different man.”
Despite his reform, current immigration law prevents Martin from regularizing his status. He was deported in 2008 and hired a coyote to help him re-enter America illegally, spending 2 days walking through the mountains as he had done 20 years before.
When asked how Martin feels about immigration reform, Pastor John said: “[Martin has] indicated to me that he’s optimistic that the reform would enable him to, if not become a U.S. citizen, be able to regularize his status.”
Activist groups like Border Encuentro help cultivate cross national relations through work with immigrants, undocumented and regularized, on both sides of the border to plan events and projects, like the bi-national garden at Friendship Park.
Also in attendance was Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, an activist group that leaves water and warm clothes in the desert for travelers and advocates on the behalf of immigrants traveling through the harsh desert.
According to Morones: “If you’re at a certain socio-economic level like Martin is—like Pedro, like Francisco, like the 10,000 migrants that have died ever since that wall was put up —even if they have money to put down for the visa they’re not going to qualify so why would they apply, they’ll just risk their lives in the desert.”
To learn more about Martin and Friendship Park visit Pastor John’s blog johnfanestil.blogspot.com or friendshippark.org. Also, check out borderangels.org to learn more about the work Enrique Monores is doing.