Peso Pluma’s music wafted down from a blue boom lift near the end of Pacific Crest Trail last Monday as two Marines tightened three strands of barbed wire around notched posts that troops had already welded to the border wall in Campo.
Once the wire was tight, the Marines, wearing safety harnesses, drove the heavy machinery forward, lurching along next to the 30-foot bollards. The three strands of barbed wire trailed from the platform where they stood. A group of Marines stood underneath them, feeding the wire up.
“I could’ve done better, Nuñez!” one man called out from the ground to the Marine guiding the boom lift.
Another Marine stood in a nearby bush, gun in hand, watching over the troops. A little ways away, another group of Marines stretched concertina wire into coils to lay on top of the barbed wire that Nuñez and his colleagues were assembling.
The scene was one of the final days of the Marines’ work reinforcing the border wall in Campo. I didn’t know it would be one of their last days there when I went to see what they were doing. I’d seen National Guard troops reinforce barriers around the San Ysidro Port of Entry during the first Trump administration, but this operation by active military troops is in many ways unprecedented. Campo seemed like the perfect place to see the work up close.
According to a Department of Defense official speaking on background, Marines with Task Force Sapper, which has been adding concertina wire and other reinforcements to various parts of the California border, have finished the “priority areas” for the San Diego sector and have returned to Imperial Beach.
From there, the official said, troops will continue to complete follow up tasks along the border wall throughout the San Diego Sector as needed.
They put in place more than 50 miles of concertina wire in the Imperial Beach and Otay Mesa areas and another nearly 8 miles in Tecate and Campo, the official said.
The troops had most recently been stationed in Campo, their tents pitched on the pavement at an old Border Patrol station. At first, there was little to shade them from the desert’s sweltering heat, according to locals, but more recently the troops added shade cloth in parts of the camp. Last Monday, several found what respite they could under the few trees that dotted the area.
They weren’t allowed to speak with me about their experiences. One photograph captured by Brittany Cruz-Fejeran shows what appears to be an injury on a Marine’s wrist and hand, possibly from working with the wire.
The taller border wall and additions of concertina wire have not stopped migrants from crossing north over the years, but they have added to injuries that people seeking new lives endure in the journey to reach U.S. soil.
“This feels bad. You feel the energy out here,” said Karen Parker, who has treated migrants wounded by the wire. “This makes my stomach hurt. This is my home.”
The troops worked on the wall until about 11:30 a.m. when they packed into vans that appeared to be from George-based company BusMax Rent-A-Bus and rode back to camp. As the vans rumbled down a gravel road, they passed a sign that said “Keep building the wall.”
A worker at a nearby grocery store said the military had been good for business, particularly with the troops’ need to hydrate after hours in the desert sun.
A little after 3 p.m., the troops came back to the wall. They donned protective vests and helmets. After about an hour of work, they had stretched the barbed wire across seven posts.
A crow floated overhead, trying to find a place to land. It settled for a spot on the border wall that did not yet have concertina wire.
From time to time, Border Patrol agents rolled by the military operation along the gravel road that follows the border wall.
Morgan Snyder, who owns the property that reaches down to the border wall by the Pacific Coast Trail, said that the border barrier in the area used to be the shorter Vietnam War-era landing mats that had covered much of the California border until President Donald Trump’s first term.
He said Trump started construction of the taller bollard wall and that former President Joe Biden completed the construction. He said his experience with the Marines had been better than with the contractors under either presidential administration.
“They’ve been very respectful,” Snyder said.
He pointed to his damaged fence line and said that contractors who built the border wall hadn’t been as considerate.
Snyder, who said he identifies as a libertarian, doesn’t think the work is a good use of the military’s time, and he doesn’t like having the tall wall or concertina wire at the edge of his property, he said.
He said the wall used to have rows of concertina wire, but people stole it.
“The wire won’t work. People that live on the border know,” Snyder said. “Do I wish that this wasn’t here? 100% yes.”
In Other News
No chance at asylum: For Capital & Main, I investigated what has been happening to asylum seekers who crossed the border after Trump came into office. Many who fled legitimate harm have been deported.
Resettling in Mexico: Some migrants have chosen to make Mexico their home after changing U.S. policies closed the possibility of finding safety there, Alexandra Mendoza reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
ICE arrests U.S. citizens: Immigration officials arrested three U.S. citizens in Linda Vista and charged them with assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal agent while the three were watching and documenting an immigration enforcement operation at an apartment complex, I reported for Daylight San Diego.
Family separation: For inewsource, Sofía Mejías-Pascoe gives a portrait of what it’s like for a family to face the deportation of a loved one.
Who is detained: Gustavo Solis explained for KPBS how you can access data about who Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining.
CBX update: The airport border crossing recently added a faster way for U.S. citizens to cross north by scanning documents in advance. Citizens will have to allow their picture to be taken when they’re crossing as part of the process, Alexandra Mendoza reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Ambulance smugglers: Alex Riggins for The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that at least four people have tried to enter the U.S. in the past month smuggled in ambulances, and Customs and Border Protection has arrested a Mexican ambulance driver.
Immigration court arrests: I followed the cases of several people who were detained by ICE officers after their immigration court hearings in San Diego for my Beyond the Border newsletter.
Detained with colon cancer: I also followed up on the case of a man I told you about last month in my newsletter — a Guatemalan man who is worried that he has colon cancer. I went to several of his court hearings and wrote about him again for Beyond the Border.
Just subscribed this morning. Will unsubscribe after reading first article by Kate Morressey. I did not care for her at the San Diego Union, and after reading her peace, I don’t like her here either..
Morrissey wrote what she saw and heard. Seems good to me.