Mexican families will once again be able to reunite at the binational Friendship Park (Parque de la Amistad) on the San Diego - Tijuana border after U.S. Border authorities launched a pilot project on Saturday, the Spanish news agency EFE reports.
In August 1971, first lady Pat Nixon inaugurated the park to allow those unable to join their family members across the U.S. border to see and touch loved ones under the surveillance of Border Patrol. On the day of its inception, the first lady stretched her hand through the barbed wire fence separating the two countries and greeted Mexican residents, a symbolic gesture signaling that one day families would be able to embrace each other without a fence.
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a strengthening of homeland security prompted reinforcement of the border and with it a project to install a triple layer fence where families once reunited at the border. In February 2009, U.S. Border Patrol agents denied U.S. citizens access to Friendship Park to start construction on the fence.
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