SAN DIEGO ACTIVISTS BLOCK CONSTRUCTION OF BORDER WALL
September 26, 2023 by JOE ORELLANA
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LRCW received an anonymous tip regarding an action at the southern border in San Diego. On the morning of September 21st, individuals blocked access to heavy equipment and building materials being used to build thirty-foot walls between the US and Mexico on Kumeyaay land.
![Four protesters stand in frame, holding up a banner that reads "STOP THE WALL." They are backlit by car headlights before dawn. Behind the fence, a private security employee is walking to the right.](/img/sOLJ-EJFmk-480.jpeg)
![Four protesters stand in frame, holding up a banner that reads "STOP THE WALL." They are backlit by car headlights before dawn. Behind them, a private security employee closes the fence.](/img/6X_vkQAmw3-480.jpeg)
Those involved arrived on site before dawn. They tethered themselves to one another with rope and surrounded the resource site. The site itself was demarcated by a chain-link fence. Shortly after the start of the blockade, a private security employee within the site closed the fences from inside. He was free to leave, and a protester explicitly communicated that later on.
![On the left side of the frame, an excavator sits behind a fence. On the right hand side, protesters walk away from the camera holding a rope. Beyond them, Spencer Construction employees are getting into their truck. The border wall is visible in the background.](/img/-1Lc8R0ovL-480.jpeg)
![Two Spencer employees are working on a fence while wearing neon green high visibility vests. One is wearing a welder's mask.](/img/KnEKqHAKHc-480.jpeg)
When employees of Spencer Construction attempted to open the opposite side of the site by cutting through the fencing, individuals on the ground carried rope along the outside of the fence until they stood between the employees and the site. After this, workers had to hop the fence to retrieve scant materials, and enlist the aid of the lone private security operative to move material over the fence.
![An excavator and a chain link fence border the frame in the foreground. In the middle distance, a Spencer employee in a white hard hat and green high visibility vest hops the fence. Beyond him, one can see the border wall.](/img/B6AfLG5oRC-480.jpeg)
Arizona-based Spencer Construction has built segments of the border wall at multiple California sites—at the behest of former president Donald Trump, and now with the tacit approval of president Joe Biden.
![The two agents and two officers are conversing while gesticulating. The two agents are to the left, the two officers are to the right. The foreground is obscured by brush.](/img/ZDLpAVb2aZ-480.jpeg)
![A Border Patrol cruiser is pointing to the left of the frame. There is a driver, and two agents stand on either side of the vehicle. The front and passenger windows are down, allowing one to see through the vehicle to the furthest bystander agent. Behind them, one can see the foot of the border wall.](/img/xQE4HrdZ-t-480.jpeg)
![Protesters are visible in the foreground, but are out of focus. Further back, on a road above the protesters, a Border Patrol agent sits in his marked cruiser, observing.](/img/QHWhcata4r-480.jpeg)
Border Patrol presence varied. At times, the site was flanked by two cruisers. At other times, it was flanked by four—and sometimes even more. At 9 AM, State Park Peace Officers were called down to assess the scene and confer with Border Patrol agents. Those rangers asked individuals on site to identify an organizer, and they did not reply. This was the only attempt at interaction made by law enforcement.
![A State Park Ranger walks toward the camera. He is in a tan uniform. Another ranger follows behind him in the black fatigues of a State Park Lifeguard. In the foreground, protesters are out of focus.](/img/xi5_Yl_44C-480.jpeg)
![the foreground consists of a dirt road, out of focus. In the distance, three Border Patrol agents confer with a Federal Protective Service Officer and a State Park ranger. Behind them is a Federal Protective Service cruiser.](/img/9CmyvgvCKk-480.jpeg)
![A Federal Protective Service officer speaks into a phone while walking. Behind him is an FPS cruiser. An additional cruiser is on the left side of the frame.](/img/paIiMHQL9g-480.jpeg)
At 10:50 AM, Federal Protective Service officers parked on the trail used by protesters to enter the area. They had conferred with Border Patrol on a distant hilltop fifteen minutes earlier. They did not interact with protesters. But, a Customs and Border Protection helicopter buzzed the site. It flew overhead, low to the ground, several times. It took sharp turns over the site. No announcement was made by the pilot beforehand. Another helicopter went over the site just before noon.
![A white helicopter is in the center of the frame, in the sky. It has a blue stripe and a Customs and Border Protection logo.](/img/mEQyymzO3t-480.jpeg)
![A dark gray helicopter flies overhead against a blue sky](/img/QZRkRZYlVp-480.jpeg)
![A Border Patrol agent stands on a stony, tan ridge. The sky is blue. He is small in the frame, visibly distant from the camera.](/img/0BxkdYCXNR-480.jpeg)
Around noon, protesters started to pack up their belongings. I’m told a protester heard workers being dismissed for the day as a result of the action, and that this motivated the draw down. Workers were ferried out in a Spencer construction van, and one allegedly thanked the protesters. Another source with eyes on the construction site near the beach said that construction did not resume that day.
![A white van with the Spencer Construction logo drives away from the border wall. The access gate is partially open.](/img/t7RmwcX5zk-480.jpeg)
LCRW received a communique from an individual who partook in the action:
“On September 21, several individuals blockaded the construction of 30 ft border walls on Kumeyaay Land at Friendship Park. The blockade brought a near-complete halt to the day’s planned construction activities. One protester had this message for Joe Biden: Your walls kill. Your walls are grotesque monuments to American imperialism. Border Patrol uses your walls as open air prisons. Stop construction now. This action is taken in solidarity with ongoing efforts to resist imperialism and militarization everywhere: Block Cop City, Free Palestine, Stop the Wall, Build Friendship Park”
![Four protesters block the fenced resource site. Two are sitting, two are standing. To the left of the frame, a Federal Protective Service vehicle is entering, driving to the right of the frame. It will pass between the protesters and the camera. The border wall is seen as it stretches into the distance.](/img/zYhrrzLvJ7-480.jpeg)
![Five protesters stand between the camera and the resource site. A banner that reads "STOP THE WALL" is on the ground in front of them. Numerous construction vehicles and heavy equipment are visible in the background. The border wall extends over the horizon.](/img/6CMDEwA0oE-480.jpeg)
Over the past weeks, Border Patrol has used the space between the walls as an ad-hoc detention facility. Families, including small children, have been all but detained in that space. On September 15th, a woman died after falling from the border wall in San Diego.
![Hundreds of migrants, some standing and some in tents, are held between two massive walls. One wall terminates just in front of the camera, as the point of view is angled through a temporarily opened gate. The walls extend into the distance. Numerous border patrol vehicles and an ambulance are visible in the distance.](/img/uZG9qvce2P-480.jpeg)