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La Frontera: A new exhibit while in line at the San Ysidro Port of Entry

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By Stefan Falke

I have chosen an appropriate location for my newest photography exhibition titled LA FRONTERA: Artists along the US Mexican Border the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

I display eighteen large-scale images from my ongoing project. You can find the photographs along the left hand fence that leads to border control on the Mexican side in Tijuana.

In this photography project, I focus on artists who live and work along the U.S.-Mexico border, documenting their individual stories and their arts’ positive influence on their communities. To date I have photographed over 200 artists on both sides and along the entire length of the border, from Tijuana to Matamoros, from Brownsville to San Diego.   [Read more…]

77 Minutes Focuses on the Victims of the San Ysidro McDonalds Massacre

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On a busy afternoon in 1984, a white man entered a McDonalds and for 77 minutes shot and then re-shot customers and employees. 21 people died and 19 were wounded. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in United States history.

That very day, the killer had been up in Clairemont Mesa arguing to a judge against a parking ticket. He then ate at a McDonald’s without incident. Originally from Ohio, the shooter had moved to Tijuana, but lost his job there and then came to San Ysidro and worked as a security guard.

Notice how I refuse to say the name of the killer. Charlie Minn, director of a new documentary about the McDonald’s Massacre in San Ysidro, also refuses to pay much attention to that individual. A filmmaker known for telling gut-wrenching stories— including Murder Capital of the World and Es El Chapo?—Minn began interviews for the San Ysidro film last May 2016. His focus was on the victims and their lingering pain even after thirty years.   [Read more…]

Slumlord To Evict 20 San Ysidro Children By October

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Owner of Gateway Inn, a last hope hotel, hands eviction notices to families, elderly

All occupants residing at the 40-room Gateway Inn received a 60-day termination notice on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. The hotel, located one block from the U.S.-Mexico border, is a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel known to provide units to those who might otherwise be homeless.

The owner of the property, listed in public documents as Francis Lin, submitted a permit to the City of San Diego to demolish the two-story hotel, according to the San Diego Development Services Department. However, the permit – filed on Jan. 13, 2016 – has not yet been approved.

Rachel, an occupant of the Gateway Inn says, “Sixty days is not enough time…In my case, I have nine children. There’s not somebody that’s just going to take us in.”   [Read more…]

League of Women Voters Tour San Diego Border Crossings

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By Beryl Flom

The League of Women Voters of San Diego recently took a tour with Customs and Border Patrol. The August 2 tour was arranged by the League’s Immigration and Deportation Committee as an opportunity to educate members about various border and immigration issues.

Those issues include the wait time crossing the border, regulations by the U.S. which can slow down a smooth transition between the two countries and the court backlog for people without documentation seeking asylum. Another issue that concerns us is the deportation of non-citizen veterans who have served our country and then commit some minor legal infraction and are deported without consideration of their readjustment back to civilian life.   [Read more…]

Casa Familiar’s Andrea Skorepa Retires

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Senior Services Center renamed in Skorepa’s honor. Lisa Cuestas becomes Executive Director in August. 

As she looks back at the last thirty-five years, Skorepa says her most important achievement is that people have pride living in San Ysidro. She’s also proud of “always being ahead of the curve–designing programs, services and events that rock the boat, turn the boat over or send the boat home.”

Whether it’s pollution created at the San Ysidro Port of Entry due to wait times, pressing for more parkland in San Ysidro or establishing an art gallery where most people wouldn’t think to have one, Andrea’s out-of-the-box approach has had a lasting impact.

Moreover, Skorepa brought affordable housing to the South Bay over the decades. Casa Familiar has 451 units at Park Haven and another over 300 units in Villa Nueva. They also have affordable housing for seniors and continue to urge the city for increasing the available affordable units.   [Read more…]

Pedestrian Crossing Now Open At San Ysidro Port of Entry …

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… National School District May Have First Female Superintendent, and Imperial Beach Hosts Sand Castle Competition

The San Ysidro PedWest Crossing opens today, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Some in nearby Chula Vista, let alone cities much further north, may not think a new pedestrian border crossing has an impact on their community — but think again.

The San Ysidro Port of Entry (POE) is the largest land POE in the world, with more than 50 million people crossing each year. Mexico is our third largest trade partner and both San Diego and Tijuana are economically intertwined, whether people appreciate that fact or not.

As the data shows, more than 68% of the 1.6 million people living in Tijuana cross the border to shop. They spend at least $6 billion a year, or more than $1 of every $8 in retail sales. That means the Mexican population pours at least $480 million sales tax dollars into the economy every year — and that’s an extremely conservative estimate.   [Read more…]

ACLU Report Details how U.S. Has Failed Deported Veterans

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July 8 action at San Diego US Border to recognize non-citizen veterans

By ACLU of California

The federal government’s failure to help naturalize immigrants serving in the U.S. military has led to the deportation of untold numbers of veterans, all of whom were entitled to become citizens because of their service, according to a report released on July 6 by the ACLU of California.

The report, “Discharged, Then Discarded,” found that deported veterans were in the U.S. legally and sustained physical wounds and emotional trauma in conflicts as far back as the war in Vietnam. Once they returned from service, however, they were subject to draconian immigration laws that reclassified many minor offenses as deportable crimes, and were effectively banished from this country.   [Read more…]

When The Junkyard Is Home

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29% of the San Ysidro student population is homeless, often living in motels and junkyards.

By Barbara Zaragoza

Veronica Medina went from being an A student to an F student while at San Ysidro Middle School. It was right around the time that her parents split up. Her dad moved to Tijuana and her mom became addicted to drugs. Medina spent many nights and weekends alone in an apartment, not knowing where her mother might be. At one point, her mother couldn’t pay rent and they ended up in a hotel. For two years, Medina bounced back and forth between couch surfing with her mother and living with her grandmother.

That was back in the 1980s.

For the last nine years, Medina has been the homeless liaison for approximately 1,408 students, or 29% of the 4,832 total enrolled in the San Ysidro School District, the largest student homeless population percentage-wise in the entire county. Her title has changed over the years— she is now the Student & Family Services Manager—but her work has never changed.   [Read more…]

Declining Enrollments In Three South Bay School Districts: What Does It Mean?

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Declines in class sizes could be positive, especially when over 80% of students qualify as low-income or English language learners, but administrators are left constrained

By Barbara Zaragoza

While the decades-old stereotype may be that illegal aliens are fleeing over the border and saturating American schools, three districts in the South Bay are currently experiencing declining enrollments: San Ysidro, South Bay Union and National School District. Of these three, two lie directly along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Over 80% of students in all three districts are classified as either English-language -learners, low-income students, or both (also referred to as the unduplicated pupil percentage or UPP). All three also have high percentages of students classified as homeless.   [Read more…]

Andrea Palacio Skorepa: From VISTA Volunteer to Casa Familiar CEO

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Andrea Skorepa has been CEO of Casa Familiar (Casa) since 1980. As we spoke I could not distinguish if Andrea was Casa Familiar or if Casa Familiar is Andrea. Both are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them.

Andrea was born at Paradise Valley Hospital. The first fourteen years of her life were spent growing up in San Ysidro, then her parents moved to Chula Vista where she attended Castle Park High School. While attending Junior College, now known as Community College, Andrea decided that she would become a Peace Corps volunteer.   [Read more…]

Trabajadores de la Raza in San Diego

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The struggle for Spanish speaking social workers, bilingual pay and mental health services

In the late 1960s a small but active group of people formed an organization known as Trabajadores de la Raza (TR). It started with social workers but soon included probation officers and community members. Various members of Trabajadores took the lead on issues and worked together to accomplish their goals. Trabajadores were on the front line whenever there was an important issue for the Spanish speaking community in the areas of mental health or social welfare.

The organization’s most important accomplishments in my opinion were revealing the lack of Spanish speaking social workers serving the Spanish speaking community and securing compensation for Spanish speaking social workers using their bilingual skills.   [Read more…]

North of the Fence: The Skybridge Opens and Wagon Man Dies

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The Skybridge opened on Wednesday, which crosses from San Diego into the Tijuana International Airport. The bridge requires a toll, a passport and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol inspection. The skybridge was built with investor money that included Chicago billionaire Sam Zell who is also known as the chairman of Equity LifeStyle Properties, the largest mobile-home landlord.

Will this be the beginning of more bridges in U.S.-Mexico relations? In 1959 entrepreneur Allen Parkinson set out to create an international skyride that would cross from San Ysidro into Tijuana, relieving congestion and becoming a tourist attraction at the same time. Plans were foiled by construction of the I-5 freeway. During the 1970s a monorail was planned between San Diego and Tijuana, but the project that also went nowhere.   [Read more…]

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