The wall at nighttime

Bright stadium lights from the U.S. side of the border point south into Mexico's Playas de Tijuana neighborhood. February 28, 2019. Photo: Mabel Jiménez

The wall

A pointed statue by the wall diving the US/Mexico border marks the boundaries between the two countries in the Playas de Tijuana neighborhood. From the other side of the wall, US surveillance cameras keep watch, March 9, 2019. Photo: Mabel Jiménez

Sunday Mass at Playas de Tijuana

Braulio Mayer (left) takes a photo of his children (whom he had not seen in ten years), and his grandchildren, (who he is meeting for the first time) through the U.S./Mexico border wall, Sunday March 10, 2019. His wife, Juana Castillo, (right) lives in California with the couple's children and grandchildren. She traveled to Mexico so that Mayer would not be standing alone on the Mexican side of the border wall during this visit. This area of the border wall, known as Friendship Park, is a meeting place for mixed-status families separated by the border wall.

Sunday Mass at Playas de Tijuana

Attendees at a bilingual, binational sermon for Sunday mass by the US/Mexico border at Playas de Tijuana, do a 'pinky kiss' with people on the other side of the wall, Sunday March 10, 2019. The term 'pinky kiss' was coined by locals to describe the only physical contact possible through this section of the border wall, a common meeting place for friends and family separated by the U.S. border.

Sunday Mass at Playas de Tijuana

Juan Manuel Barragan Corona, distraught and intoxicated after being recently deported, descends the U.S./Mexico border wall after tying red ribbons on the beams of the border wall as a way to cope with the separation from his children, who remain in the U.S., Sunday March 10, 2019.

Cityscape with wall

The US/Mexico border wall is seen from the Altamira neighborhood, near downtown Tijuana, March 15, 2019. On the Mexican side, buildings are constructed all the way up to the border wall. Meanwhile, in the U.S. side, construction, and daily life are kept far away from the border wall.

Repair and Flag burn at Playas

A welder makes repairs to a section of the US/Mexico border wall at Playas de Tijuana, while Border Patrol agents keep guard, March 15, 2019. Hours prior, several migrants used a carjack to open the space between the beams, and wire cutters on the chain link fence in between the beams in order to enter the U.S.

Repair and Flag burn at Playas

An American flag made up of scraps of fabric and set up on the Mexican side of the border wall by migrant caravaners months ago, burns after being set on fire by a local beachgoer on Friday March 15, 2019 at Playas de Tijuana, the westernmost section of the U.S./Mexico border wall.

Repair and Flag burn at Playas

Children frolic and tourists take photos at the beach near the westernmost section of the US/Mexico border wall at Playas de Tijuana, March 15, 2019. While the border wall on the U.S. side is deserted and highly patrolled, on the Mexican side it is a lively tourist destination with little to no surveillance.