Get off the Levee–Granjeno Blog
On Saturday, 15 November 2008, Miguel and Margaret travelled to Granjeno to view the construction of the border wall/fence from one of their favorite locations. Since we arrived in July 2008, in fact, Miguel and Margaret have attempted to visit this spot of, then projected, border wall construction and visually document the changes. When we arrived in July, we were able to drive around this area unencumbered. We drove over one levee then across what is now called no man’s lands over to the other levee and then we drove down that levee to the River, driving for a good distance, approximately five miles, attempting to project where the wall would be built.
Our trips to this spot have progressively been curtailed. (You can view this in our Border Wall Slide Show.) About one week after our first visit, signs directing us not to go beyond the top of the first levee appeared. More signs arose. With the signs, we were still permitted to drive over the levee and photograph the construction. When we cruised to this spot in Granjeno recently (15 November), we were surprised when a construction truck immediately speed up to us. Out jumped a fellow in an orange vest with an id card. Stories of migrants dressing up in the orange vests of construction workers and passing unnoticed into the U.S. have been circulating broadly.? We assume that the worker was wearing an id card in response to these reports.— As quickly as he zoomed onto the scene, he informed us that we could not view the levee from that spot beside the Restricted Area signs. He told us that we could only view the construction from the bottom of the levee.
In other words, we can view the border wall construction from a location where it is physically impossible to view the actual border wall construction. We were informed that if we wanted to view the actual construction of the 18-foot high wall, we needed the permission of Godfry Garza. We plan to call Garza, but given that we were there on a Saturday we knew that he would not be able to allow us to view the construction while we were there.
As previously noted, Miguel and Margaret went to Granjeno for their weekly documentation. When the construction worker approached us, then, we had our cameras out and on. (You can hear Margaret clicking her camera on the film clip.) When you click the link below, you can watch us getting kicked off the levee. The film also captures some of the trucks in action, providing a sense of how massive this project is. Viewer be warned: the footage is incredibly rough.
Granjeno
