Landscape is changing along U.S-Mexico border in California

Published: February 22, 2009Buzz up!

IMPERIAL SAND DUNES, Calif. — Every weekend he can, Gene Elwell heads to the desert and races his buggy over the largest sand dunes in the U.S.



Paul Olivares, left, talks with his son-in-law, right, through the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Border Field State Park in San Diego. AP PHOTO




Nearly 200 miles west, on California’s Pacific shores, the Rev. John Fanestil spends every Sunday at Friendship Park, where people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border touch hands and talk through holes in a chain-link fence.

For decades, the dunes and Friendship Park were virtually unchanged. But in its final months, as the Bush administration raced to fulfill a pledge to erect 670 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers on the border, they were transformed almost overnight.

A fence now slices through the Imperial Sand Dunes, preventing recreational riders from veering into Mexican sands. Before, drug smugglers easily blended in with riders to reach Interstate 8, less than a half-mile from the border at one point.

Friendship Park, opened in 1971 to promote ties between the U.S. and Mexico, is closing. Crews are making way for two tall fences, ending years of cross-border food sales and family reunions.

It’s similar elsewhere on the 1,954-mile border. In Eagle Pass, Texas, a golf course is sandwiched between the Rio Grande and a new fence. In Columbus, N.M., visitors see the fence from the high ground at Pancho Villa State Park.

The Bush administration built 224 miles of barriers, bringing the total to 602 miles. The Border Patrol plans to hit 670 miles this year, spokesman Lloyd Easterling said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said fences can help in border cities but that it makes little sense to fence the entire border.

The southern tip of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area in California resembles the Sahara and was a film location for "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.â€