No Borders Camp Wins Key Concessions from Border Patrol

The second morning on the border Friday, November 9th, began with a fall from the barrier wall followed by a big win for the kids on both sides of the so-called border. Kids from US and Mexico are camping in solidarity with no borders actions around the world this week leading up to the commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 10th.

At the break of dawn on the second day of the camp, the West side was undisturbed.

Someone with more poise and grace than the average person was practicing early morning yoga. He finished his routine and climbed the ladder to the top of the border wall. The next step he took was to stand up on the top of the wall. Walking carefully and keeping his balance he successfully negotiated its uneven surface for a few feet and climbed back down. Having made one successful walk he soon tried again to walk on the 15 foot high barrier without secure lines or a net. One moment he was there and the next he was gone having fallen on the east "Mexican" side.

What later became apparent to those watching his daring undertaking was that he was able to catch himself on the top edge and drop down to the desert floor. Everyone who was awake to see this spectacle was relieved to see him on the east side, attending the bi-national breakfast and visually unharmed.

Bob Marley music filled the air, six border patrol people and about 60 kids were having a chill breakfast at the end of the so-called border across the vehicle barrier. The vehicle barrier leads to a maintenance road on the edge of an algae green canal running off to the horizon. Apples and oranges were thrown from one group of kids to the other over the heads of the border people.

The border patrol got very nervous and called for more border people. Within in 15 minutes the numbers swelled to 30 and then over 50 shortly thereafter. Sheriff deputies, bureau of land management rangers and a border patrol supervisor appeared along with border people dressed in riot gear.

What started as a quiet breakfast soon turned into a standoff. Kids on the east side were pushed back from the vehicle barrier and kids on west side began chants to express their dissatisfaction with the unnecessary oppression by the border people. A helicopter from the press flew over the No Borders Camp to see what was happening on the Southern California border.

Unknown to the border camp kids was a concern held by he border people. They were concerned about a contingent of kids who crossed over the night before to the east side camp via the vehicle barrier. The kids who crossed over were approaching the border people with the east side kids and, unbeknown to them, made the border people nervous.

A lady with white hair played an unwittingly key role in the deescalation of the standoff. She initiated a chat with one of the border people. The border person asked her why the 25 or so kids crossed over to east side the previous night. She told the person that drug addicts were undermining the east side camp and the west side kids went over to help reinforce the no alcohol, drugs or firearms guidelines. The guidelines were consensual agreed to by everyone involved in the camp.

The information gleaned from the lady was relayed to the negotiator. Around the same time a negotiation was begun to deescalate the standoff between the border people and the kids. The kids wanted to have free access between the two camps and the border people were preventing this lawful, peaceful purpose.

To create the world they want to see three demands were made by the kids to move a border vehicle away from the barrier, to bring the east side kids and their camp closer to the vehicle barrier, and to allow food to be passed across the barrier.

As a result of the negotiation all three demands were met. No on was arrested and the bi-national breakfast resumed. The border people withdrew and even brought water and food to host breakfast for themselves at the barrier. And a space without borders has been established.