President Donald Trump’s self-described “big, beautiful” border wall is taking shape with eight 30-foot prototypes rising in San Diego — stark barriers that have not impressed those living on the Tijuana side of the Mexican border.
Visually, the prototypes are offensive, said Maria Elena Valenzuela, 40, who was born in San Diego and grew up on both sides of the Tijuana border. “They’re horrible,” she said.
Valenzuela’s grandfather worked on the railway in the United States. Her father was a guest worker, or bracero, in California. And, she worked as a high school teacher and administrator at schools across California.
“I’m the third generation of Mexicans who work and contribute to that country,” she said, describing the wall as a symbol of ignorance many Americans have toward Mexico.
“They don’t recognize our contributions,” she said.
The border-wall prototypes in San Diego are in front of the Las Torres and Rancho Escondido colonies along an area of Tijuana where a 10-foot corrugated metal wall already exists. Homes, parking lots, dumped waste and burned cars line this border region.
The sample sections — made of concrete, thick metal poles, and other materials — were completed in late October near the Otay Mesa border crossing. One wall has a grey surface textured with patterns of different-sized bricks. A steel plate sits atop with metal spikes.
They’re the first tangible signs of Trump’s pledge to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall, a promise that helped get him elected.
Some Tijuana residents say they’re symbols of racism. Others who live a few yards from the prototypes seem indifferent. Afterall, a U.S.-Mexico border wall is nothing new here.
Children and teenagers with backpacks walk past the towering prototypes without even looking up. Many who live a little farther away seem unaware of the eight new structures.
“They don’t bother me,” said Cesar Gonzalez, 60, whose house in Tijuana is adjacent to the prototypes. “If Trump wants to shut in his people, well, he should do it. Here, it doesn’t affect me.
“It’s unnecessary. There are going to be people who will cross by boat, airplane, tunnel, submarine,” said Gonzalez, a plant salesman, adding that in the past five years he’s seen a decrease in the number of people crossing the border near his home.
Talking about the wall
The wall was a major point of discussion in the “Talking Across Borders” project that used “dialogue journalism” to foster productive discussions between people with starkly opposing views. The Facebook group discussion, which included about 60 people from Southern and Northern California, was facilitated by Spaceship Media.
Media partners in the effort included the Bay Area News Group, Southern California News Group and Univision.
Reactions were mixed in the discussion group. Some felt the wall would only offer an unrealistic sense of security. Others said it would be beneficial for California to prevent more people from coming in to use the state’s benefits.
Gregory Brittain, a Redlands lawyer and member of the Redlands Tea Party Patriots, took part in the project. He supports the wall and said the prototypes are “a good height.” He said physical barriers are an important component to halting illegal immigration.
Building the wall just makes sense, he said. It’s a way to protect U.S. citizens from the effects of illegal immigration, such as the decrease of wages among low-skilled American workers, Brittain added.
“Just as in your home, you’re to say who comes into your home. As a country, were entitled to say who comes into our country,” he said.
To participant Mayra Azanza, a 40-year-old entrepreneur who lives in Culver City, a wall is a “hideous physical statement close-minded society.”
“Walls are just placebos,” added Azanza, who came to the U.S. from Mexico on a spousal visa 13 years ago.
“As long as there’s a market for cheap labor, drugs, guns and money, there will be smugglers,” she said.
Eve Pearlman, co-founder of Spaceship Media, said the conversation about the border was valuable.
“Any time in this polarized political moment that people can communicate civilly and respectfully online about hot-button issues like the border wall, we think that is a victory,” Pearlman said.
Strategically placed
The Otay Mesa prototypes will soon be tested to guide future wall construction, which has not yet been funded by Congress. Workers will wield sledgehammers, torches, pickaxes and battery-operated tools to determine which wall design would best prevent people from breaching the border.
For some, the location of the prototypes sends a political message.
“It’s not just any place along the border. It’s where Mexican and Central American migrants are crossing, where migrants live,” said Oscar Romo, a UC San Diego professor who for years has looked into border infrastructure along San Diego and Tijuana.
Houses there provide shelter to migrants, he said. It’s a location where government officials likely thought migrants and residents would “look at these prototypes and perhaps be afraid of them,” Romo said.
Romo said the modules were strategically placed there.
“It’s been proven before that whatever they do in San Diego has a lot of influence in terms of perceptions both in Mexico and in the U.S.,” he said.
The first set of fences made of helicopter landing mats were initially placed along the San Diego-Tijuana border, Romo added.
“It carries a message that is being seen not just by migrants, but by visitors and tourists, and they carry this message around the world with them,” Romo said.
Right next to the prototypes in Tijuana is a parking lot where truck drivers from all over Mexico rest and park their trailers after or before delivering goods to retailers south of the border.
Martina Clemente, who runs the parking area’s front office, said she’s seen truck drivers taken aback by the new barriers.
“They look surprised and they take photos,” Clemente said. “They ask themselves, ‘Is this really going to serve a purpose?”
On a recent afternoon, a 57-year-old man whose last name is Escamilla — swept the sidewalk outside his house in Tijuana. The prototypes loomed in the background. He didn’t want to give his first name because he lives and works in the U.S. and said he was afraid of retaliation.
He’s a legal permanent resident in the U.S. where he drives a crane for a living. It takes him about an hour-and-a-half to drive from his Temecula home in Riverside County to visit his family in Tijuana.
“For me, these walls are nothing interesting,” Escamilla said.
The prototypes carry a negative image. They’re a form of racism, he said.
“I think what this man (Trump) wants to do is, divide a country. It’s ignorant. They need us as much as we need them.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.