IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) — After a roughly five-month pause, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced construction on the border wall near Friendship Park will move forward.
According to the announcement on Tuesday, CBP "paused work on the project in August to conduct additional stakeholder outreach and to further engage with the community on the barrier requiring repair in this area."
The plan will replace much of the current 18-foot wall with a 30-foot bollard-style wall.
Friendship Park has been used as a meeting spot for decades for family and friends who are separated by the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, those opposed to the construction are still disappointed in the plan, as they were when protests broke out months before. They claim the style of the wall will be intimidating and cause difficult visibility.
"We believe that President Joe Biden is effectively choosing to complete Donald trump's border wall," said John Fanestil with the Friends of Friendship Park.
According to Fanestil, not many of the group's recommendations were taken into account in CBP's new plan.
Fanestil noted two points of compromise: The number of people who will be allowed in the park is set at 25, and a 60-foot-long section of the border wall will be 18 feet high, not 30 feet.
"Apart from those two accommodations there is no evidence... that any other input from community stakeholders and elected officials was incorporated," said Fanestil.
Tania Mendoza goes the Friendship Park nearly every day to help and advocate for families who wait near the border.
Before many of her family members became American citizens, Mendoza says they used to meet at Friendship park.
Mendoza believes the new construction will cause heartache for many families who use the wall to see one another.
"They are totally gonna break chains of love, care, interest, family, hope," said Mendoza.
According to Friends of Friendship Park, construction is expected to start in February.
