Between Two Worlds

From the late 1970’s through the 1990’s the San Diego Sector of the border with Mexico was a portal through which more illegal immigrants passed than across any political boundary in the world. Border Patrol statistics reveal that more than 2 million people were apprehended and deported. Authorities surmise millions more evaded arrest. I recorded both enforcement efforts and changing migratory routes in an era when the border was variously defined by strands of barbed wire pounded into the dirt by thousands of feet, a schoolyard-like chain link fence through which migrants got their first views of El Norte, and a barrier of surplus steel that could be climbed by nearly anyone who was too hungry to knock.

Boundary of the United States

OCTOBER 9, 1979. IMPERIAL BEACH, CA. " People in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico look through the border fence an ecumenical group conducting a ceremony in Friendship Park. The scene was peaceful and calm and I didn't see anyone slip through the very porous fence line. Erected in the mid 1800's, this solid marble obelisk 200 yards from the Pacific Ocean is the western most of 258 monuments that mark the nearly 2,000 mile boundary of the United States and Mexico. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Heavy Traffic on the Border

JUNE 25, 1989. SAN YSIDRO, CA. In this late afternoon view through a 1200mm telephoto lens, a U.S. Border Patrol Bronco can be seen kicking up a cloud of dust in the Tijuana River Valley where approximately 375 people wait on the river levees for the right moment to cross into the United States. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Pressure from the South

TIJUANA, MEXICO. JUNE 25, 1990. On a hill above the distant Tijuana River Valley, dozens of people crowd against the Mexican side of the 10-ft-high chain-link border fence. A handful of young men face off with U.S. Border Patrol agents on the California side. By nightfall hundreds will scale the fence or crawl through holes and into the United States. The sheer number of illegal immigrants routinely overwhelms attempts at enforcement. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

International Fast Food

JUNE 6, 1989. SAN YSIDRO, CA. Francisca Gutierrez, right, passes hot chicken and beans from her makeshift outdoor kitchen in Tijuana to an illegal immigrant on the San Ysidro, California side of the fence. She serves hot, savory meals to many of the 100's of people waiting along the borderline for nightfall and a chance to make a run towards San Diego County. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Broken Border

AUGUST 17, 1990. SAN YSIDRO, CA. Like this child in a party dress riding atop a woman's shoulders, many migrants who enter the U.S. without documents told me they dress up with hopes of blending in once they make it to the sidewalks of nearby San Ysidro, south of San Diego, CA. Another man bides his time reading a novela where the vandalized border barrier that sits horizontally on the U.S. side. (Photo by Don Bartletti)

South Levee Crowd Control

FEBRUARY 29, 1992. SAN YSIDRO, MEXICO A U.S. Border Patrol Ford Bronco speeds over the packed mud in the Tijuana River bottom forcing men to scamper into the shallow waterway. I witnessed this from the north levee on the U.S. side. 100 yards to the left I could easily walk across the invisible river bottom borderline and join hundreds of people waiting patiently on the south levee for a gap in enforcement. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Crossing Over

FEBRUARY 14, 1992. SAN YSIDRO, CALIFORNIA. "Crossing Over" Illegal immigrants hold plastic bags over their shoes and pant legs and slosh through the shallows of the foul smelling, sewage polluted Tijuana River. I observed vendors atop the distant south levee doing a brisk business selling these plastic bags for $1 a pair. Behind me is the sloping concrete south levee of the TJ river. It's topped by an 8-ft-fence with U.S. Border Patrol agents behind it. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Wraiths

Ghosty silhouettes disappear into the fog on the north levee of the Tijuana River. Some carry plastic bags used to protect shoes and pant legs from the sewage polluted river they just crossed. At the top of the 10-ft-high steel fence a smuggler faces the glare of U.S. Border Patrol security lights and plots the timing and route for his charges. The rustle of plastic, the salty stench, the whispers of companions all blended into this monochromatic drama. (Photo by Don Bartletti)

Between Two Worlds

FEBRUARY 29, 1992. SAN YSIDRO, MEXICO Two U.S. Border Patrol agents wait next to their car on the north side of the steel border fence just to the west of Virginia Avenue. On the right, would-be immigrants wait at the top of the north levee of the Tijuana River. The view through my camera is not unlike that seen by those who peek through tiny gaps in the surplus steel panel fence. When the time is right, fence jumpers use the horizontal grooves in the panels to climb it like a ladder (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Too Hungry to Knock

JUNE 18, 1992. SAN YSIDRO, CA. A pair of young men free fall down the north side of the U.S/Mexico border fence. A smuggler straddling the locked door signals that U.S. Border Patrol agents are not close anymore. Hours before this I listened to voices through the steel barrier offering stories of poverty and asking the value of my camera. But when the smuggler whistled, the barrier thundered loud from climbing feet and banging knees. 6 men sprinted past me in pursuit of their future. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Border Bandit

APRIL 26, 1990. SAN YSIDRO, CA. After pummeling him with rocks, Carlos Salcido tightens his belt around the neck of a bandit who robbed his son. His 10-yr-old sells sodas to migrants waiting along the U.S. side of the borderline with Tijuana. I heard Salcido screaming from yards away and could see him shredding the shirt off his back. I was here for a story of 5 recent murders and robberies by Mexican gangs. Salcido voiced his frustration about the lawlessness around him and he thanked me for reporting it. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

The Soccer Field

JANUARY 22, 1988. OTAY MESA, CA. Illegal immigrants crowd Padre Florenzo Rigoni to celebrate mass just inside California from Tijuana's Colonia Libertad. The U.S./Mexico border is roughly the white path on the hillside and barbed wire flattened into the dirt by thousands of northbound shoes. "The Soccer Field" name is a border patrol designation for the location in Zapata Canyon. I visited it frequently. Throughout the 80's the masses of unsettled people reminded me of pictures from Ellis Island. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Benediction Before the Journey

OTAY MESA, CA. JANUARY 22, 1988 A few yards north of the border, Padre Florenzo Rigoni (left), an Italian missionary priest from Tijuana, and Father John Jensen from the Los Angeles archdiocese, bless anxious migrants before they begin their uncertain nighttime journey north. Some will be captured by U.S. officials, others will fall victim to bands of thieves, others will take the little footpaths in the distance where their fate resides. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Exodus

OTAY MESA, CA. MAY 21, 1983. Legions of migrants walk silently north from The Soccer Field and the U.S./Mexico border. Officials believe that more than a million will cross illegally from Tijuana this year, making the San Diego Sector the most heavily crossed political boundary in the world. An ocean breeze mixes the stench of burning trash with the sweetness of warming tortillas from Colonia Liberated. The only sound is the crunching of feet on the well worn pathways. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Bridge Over the Tijuana River

MAY 5, 1990. SAN YSIDRO, CA. Extended family members of all ages who illegally entered the U.S. before dawn, cross a plank bridge in the Tijuana River Valley. Each paid $1.00 to avoid soiling their nice clothes in the sewage filled waterway. The border is 15 minutes hike behind them. Smugglers are usually very camera shy. This morning however, the guide in shorts was leery but didn't interfere. The family's 73-yr-old patriarch with walking stick told me, "I want to see my son (in Los Angeles) one more time before I die." (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Dangerous Tactic

JULY 27,1990. SAN YSIDRO, CA. A woman clutching an infant and child in tow follow another across traffic lanes of Interstate 5 about a mile north of the U.S./Mexico border. In the late 1980's and early 90's hundreds of pedestrians were killed and injured on San Diego County freeways. All were illegal immigrants trying to avoid roadways and checkpoints used by the U.S. Border Patrol. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Interstate Pedestrians

AUGUST 21, 1990. SAN YSIDRO, CA. Just after dawn a smuggler leads a group of illegal immigrants across freeway I-5 subjecting many to the dangers of high-speed traffic. Hundreds have been killed and maimed because smugglers erroneously believed law enforcement would ambush them on overpasses. California Department of Transportation asked me to donate more pictures so they could design warning signs and billboards. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Warning Sign

MARCH 12, 1993. CAMP PENDLETON, CA. Yellow and black freeway pedestrian warning signs like this were designed by an artist from 7 or 8 photographs that I donated to the California Department of Transportation. This is one of dozens erected along San Diego County freeways near the border with Mexico and 70 miles north near Border Patrol checkpoints. The signs and a median fence reduced pedestrian deaths to zero (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

Bailout

MAY 1, 1990. CAMP PENDLETON, CA. A smuggler looks anxiously for authorities as illegal immigrants bail out of the trunk of his 4-door sedan. I was enjoying the ocean view when the car backed in next to me at this viewpoint on freeway I-5 about 3.5 miles south of a Border Patrol checkpoint. I was taken completely by surprise when 6 people burst out and disappeared down towards the beach. Their goal was to hike around the final law enforcement obstacle between the border and Los Angeles. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)

No Man’s Land

JUNE 3, 1998. OTAY MESA, CA. A U.S. Border Patrol agent and a stray dog sit in a no-man's land between the old surplus steel border fence on the left and a new fine mesh, galvanized steel cantilever barrier on the right. This is between the Otay Mesa and the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The double fencing and all weather road for high speed interdiction disrupted a once favored path to the United States. As a result migratory routes shifted to the mountains and deserts to the east. (Photograph by Don Bartletti)