The Mexico–United States border wall is a series of vertical barriers along the Mexico–United States border intended to reduce illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico. The barrier is not a continuous structure but a series of obstructions variously classified as "fences" or "walls".
State Route 905 (SR 905), also known as the Otay Mesa Freeway, is an 8.964-mile-long (14.426 km) state highway in San Diego, in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of California. It connects I-5 and I-805 in San Ysidro to the Mexican border at Otay Mesa. The entire highway from I-5 to the international border is a freeway with a few exits that continues east from the I-805 interchange before turning southeast and reaching the border.
State Route 11 (SR 11) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. The first phase of the highway opened in 2016, connecting SR 125 and SR 905 with Enrico Fermi Drive in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. It is planned to be extended from Enrico Fermi Drive to the proposed U.S.–Mexico border crossing at Otay Mesa East. There are also plans for an interchange at Siempre Viva Road and to convert the highway to a toll road once the entire route is completed. Planning for the road began in the 1990s, and construction started in 2013.
The Mexico–United States border is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. The Mexico–U.S. border is the most frequently crossed border in the world with approximately 350 million documented crossings annually. It is the tenth-longest border between two countries in the world.
Otay Mesa is a community in the southern section of the city of San Diego, just north of the U.S.–Mexico border.
Operation Gatekeeper was a measure implemented during the presidency of Bill Clinton by the United States Border Patrol, aimed at halting illegal immigration to the United States at the United States–Mexico border near San Diego, California. According to the INS, the goal of Gatekeeper was "to restore integrity and safety to the nation's busiest border."
The Secure Fence Act of 2006, also labelled H.R. 6061, is an act of the United States Congress which authorized and partially funded the construction of 700 miles (1,125 km) of fencing along the Mexican border. The Act was signed into law on October 26, 2006, by U.S. President George W. Bush, who stated at the time that the Act would "help protect the American people", would "make our borders more secure", and was "an important step toward immigration reform".
The Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) provides expedited U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing, at the U.S.-Mexico border, of pre-approved travelers considered low-risk. Voluntarily applicants must undergo a thorough background check against criminal, customs, immigration, law enforcement, and terrorist databases; a 10-fingerprint law enforcement check; and a personal interview with a CBP Officer. The total enrollment fee is $122.50, and SENTRI status is valid for 5 years.
Illegal entry is the act of foreign nationals arriving in or crossing the borders into a country in violation of its immigration law. Human smuggling is the practice of aiding people in crossing international borders for financial gain, often in large groups. Human smuggling is associated with human trafficking. A human smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is usually free. Trafficking involves physical force, fraud, or deception to obtain and transport people, usually for enslavement or forced prostitution.
The San Ysidro Mountains are a mountain range in southern San Diego County, California and Baja California, Mexico. The mountains are a rugged coastal foothill range of the Peninsular Ranges system. Major peaks include the highest summit of the range, Otay Mountain, and the Cerro San Isidro which forms the southern extrusion of the range on the Mexican side of the border. The majority of the range is within the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area, in the United States.
Smuggling tunnels are secret passages used for the smuggling of goods and people. The term is also used where the tunnels are built in response to a siege.
Otay Centenario is a borough of the municipality of Tijuana in Baja California, Mexico. It is the result of a merger between the former boroughs of Mesa de Otay and Centenario which took place on January 1, 2014.
The Otay Mesa Port of Entry is one of three ports of entry (POE) in the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan region, in the U.S. state of California, connecting Otay Mesa in the City of San Diego with the Otay Centenario borough of Tijuana. The facility was opened in 1983, and was constructed primarily to divert growing commercial truck traffic from the busy San Ysidro Port of Entry, located 5.2 miles (8.4 km) west. Since then, significant passenger vehicle and pedestrian traffic has grown as development in the area around the crossing has grown. Commercial importations through Otay Mesa accounts for billions of dollars' worth of freight.
The Otay Mesa East Port of Entry is a planned border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, approximately 2 miles east of the existing Otay Mesa Port of Entry. The crossing will connect the Otay Centenario borough of Tijuana with East Otay Mesa in unincorporated San Diego County, an as-yet undeveloped area slotted for future development including a business park. Although the crossing will allow cars and pedestrians, it is mainly designed for trucks and commercial vehicles.
East Otay Mesa is an as-yet undeveloped area in the South Bay region of unincorporated San Diego County, southern California.
Cross Border Xpress (CBX), historically also called the Tijuana Cross-border Terminal and the Puerta de las Californias, is an airport terminal located in the Otay Mesa area of southern San Diego, California, United States, with an access bridge connecting it to the Tijuana International Airport in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It opened on December 9, 2015. It makes Tijuana Airport a geographically binational airport. Unlike the binational airports serving the Swiss cities of Basel and Geneva, the CBX terminal is physically located in the United States but serves an airport whose main terminal and runways are in Mexico. A pedestrian bridge spans the United States–Mexico border and Via de la Juventud Oriente in Tijuana, connecting passenger terminals between the two countries. It was the creation of Ralph Nieders, who introduced the concept and infrastructure design in Mexico City in 1989 and San Diego in 1990. The structural scheme allows passengers originating in, and destined to the United States direct access to the Tijuana airport and equally gives Mexican and international carriers operating from the Tijuana airport direct access to the U.S. passenger market.
The Otay Mountain Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in San Diego County, California, 12 miles east of the community of Otay Mesa and just north of the Mexican border. Some parts of the wilderness area rise quickly from sea level, reaching a peak of just over 3,500 feet (1,100 m) at the summit of Otay Mountain.
Otay Mountain is a mountain located in San Diego County, California. It is the highest summit of the San Ysidro Mountains. The mountain is located in the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area.
The 2015 opening of the Cross Border Xpress terminal and bridge to the Tijuana Airport, also referred to as the Tijuana Cross-border Terminal and the Puerta de las Californias, was preceded by a quarter century of negotiations that were impacted by political, economic and security issues.
The Smuggler's Gulch is part of a steep walled canyon about 2 miles (3.2 km) inland of the Pacific Ocean. The canyon crosses the Mexico–United States border, between Tijuana, Baja California, and San Diego, California, and Smuggler's Gulch is the part of the canyon on the US side of the border. It may also be called Cañón del Matadero or Valle Montezuma in Spanish, but these names apply more generally to the whole canyon. Smuggling activities within Smuggler's Gulch have occurred since the 19th century, giving this part of the canyon its name.
