San Ysidro Border Crossing I came down to San Diego during (8/11/12 to 8/12/12). I decided to go across the border to see Mexico and how Los Angeles is becoming more and more like Tijuana. When I crossed at the San Ysidro border crossing, I notice that there were not as many American tourists that are usually going down to the Tijuana clubs at night. I went down to see some of the clubs in downtown Tijuana and notice that there were fewer Americans in this part of the city now also. I believe that this is possibly due to the increase violence caused by drug cartels. I have been coming down to Tijuana for over 15 years.
After visiting a few clubs, I decided to return to the U.S. I took a taxi back to the border crossing at about 3:00 am from downtown Tijuana. When we arrived at the border station, there was a long line of Mexican people that stretched several blocks from the border. The taxi driver informed me the line is for people going across the border. I never saw a line that long during the early morning hours and was dismayed when the driver told me the lines are longer during the daytime hours.
So I walked to the back of the line. When I finally got to the border agents on the inside of the border station, I observed that they were just letting all of the Mexicans walk across after they just flashed some kind of card that looked like a driver’s license. I observed also that most of the border patrol agents were Hispanic or some other kind of foreigner.
When I approached the border agents at the border, they questioned where I was coming from and asked for my ID. After giving them my driver’s license, they stated I am required to have a passport. They scanned my passport into their computer system and looked at the screen for a moment. The Hispanic agent that was running a background check on me, could see that I have crossed the same border many times that year and that I am an American citizen. The agent typed a few notes into her computer, glanced at me a few times, and said, “ok, you can go.” Meanwhile, the other agents allowed about 50 Mexicans to just walk across the border without scanning their ID cards into their computer system.
The next day, I returned with my camera. When I arrived at the highway overpass that stretches past the immigration border station at San Yasidro, there was a long line of cars going in and out of Mexico. Most of them were Mexicans. I started taking pictures to use with my article, border agents saw me and began to chase me, so I packed up my camera and departed the area.
My experience at the Mexican border during this trip is further evidence that our Border Patrol and I.C.E. are just allowing immigrants to pour over into this country freely. I do not believe a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border is going to stop the flood of illegal aliens and terrorists into this country as they have allowed for the past 12 years. Historically, people have been crossing that border, since CA was a part of Mexico. This is a major threat to the health and safety of American citizens and is highly illegal. For almost a year, I lived in what is considered a border town, El Paso, Texas in the 1990s. Los Angeles, California has become just like a “border town” now even though it is about 300 miles North of the Mexican border. I blame Bush and our I.C.E. along with U.S. Border Patrol Agents along the U.S. Mexican border.
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| San Diego Trolley |
Interstate 5 crossing into Mexico
The following is an article about San Ysidro from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro,_San_Diego
San Ysidro is a community in the southern section of San Diego. It is located in the southernmost part of San Diego County, immediately north of the U.S.-Mexico border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north,Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley to the west. Major thoroughfares include Beyer Boulevard and San Ysidro Boulevard.
San Ysidro is home to the world’s busiest land border crossing, where U.S. Interstate 5 crosses into Mexico at Tijuana. In the 2005 U.S. fiscal year, more than 17 million vehicles and 50 million people entered the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The great majority of these are workers (both of Mexican and U.S. nationality) commuting from Tijuana to jobs in the greater San Diego area and throughout southern California. There is also reverse traffic, both of workers traveling to maquiladoras in Mexico and those purchasing services or seeking entertainment in Tijuana. Crossing times are often slow at San Ysidro, particularly for those entering the United States in cars. For this reason many cross on foot, the line for which is frequently much faster than the vehicle line. Some foot travelers own a car in each country, and keep them in one of the large parking lots located near the border post, or use the respective public transportation systems of both cities (both systems have a bus station built solely to serve the border crossing point, and the San Diego Trolley runs from downtown San Diego to the border crossing).