San Ysidro, San Diego, California

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This article is about the community in California. For other places with this name, see San Ysidro (disambiguation).

View of U.S.-Mexico barrier (and Tijuana, Baja California beyond it) from San Ysidro, California.

San Ysidro is a community within the city of San Diego, California. It was annexed by the city of San Diego in 1957. It is located in the southernmost part of San Diego County, California, immediately north of the international border with Mexico.

San Ysidro is named for San Ysidro Labrador (Saint Isidore), patron saint of farmers.

Border Crossing

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San Ysidro is home to the world's busiest land border crossing, where U.S. Interstate 5 crosses into Mexico at Tijuana. Each year over 14 million vehicles and 40 million people enter the U.S. at the San Ysidro port of entry. The great majority of these are workers (both of Mexican and U.S. nationality) commuting from Tijuana to jobs in the greater San Diego area and throughout southern California. There is also a thriving reverse traffic, both of workers traveling to maquiladoras in Mexico and those purchasing services (vehicle repairs, hair and beauty services, childcare, medical and dental) or seeking entertainment in Tijuana. Crossing times are notoriously slow at San Ysidro, particularly for those entering the U.S. in cars. For this reason many cross on foot, the line for which is frequently much faster than the vehicle line. Some foot travelers own a car in each country, and store them in one of the large parking lots located near the border post, or use the respective public transportation systems of both cities (both systems have a bus station built solely to serve the border crossing point).

Many people frequently visit the fence that separates the beaches at the international border (known as Playas de Tijuana in Mexico, and Border Field State Beach in the United States). On Sundays in particular, people go to speak to their friends and family members through the rusty fence, all under the careful watchful eye of U.S. Border Patrol personnel which watch with binoculars from the hillside nearby.

Crime

The rusty barrier at the western-most point of the 1,951 mile U.S.-Mexico border runs right into the sea.

San Ysidro is also believed to be among the busiest sites for the importation of illegal drugs into the U.S. Much of this is smuggled in cars or trucks, but some is transported through one of the custom-built tunnels constructed by narcotraffickers under the border.

Central to the Tijuana drug trade is the Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO).

In 1984 a spree killing occurred at a McDonald's restaurant in the city, when James Oliver Huberty killed 21 people before himself being shot and killed by police officers (see McDonald's massacre).

On May 18, 2006, the border crossing was closed for nine hours after federal authorities were forced to shoot and kill the driver of a car bound for Mexico, just 50 feet north of the Port of Entry. The vehicle was reportedly seen picking up illegal immigrants.

External links

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