The top U.S. Border Patrol official in San Diego says he decided to close a half-acre plaza on California's border with Mexico to enhance security.
The agency is tearing up concrete at Friendship Park, where throngs once gathered to chat through a chain-link fence.
Mike Fisher, the Border Patrol's San Diego sector chief, told The Associated Press yesterday that criminals exploited holes in the fence, passing drugs and immigration documents for impostors.
Fisher said it wasn't an easy call. He wanted a compromise with critics who wanted to keep the plaza, which was dedicated by then-first lady Pat Nixon in the 1970s.
The Border Patrol will replace the plaza with a dirt road sandwiched between fences.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
