Why did the water cross the fence?

On December 8th of 2012 in the morning, in prep for the Gran Posada sin fronteras later that same day, I was maintaining the garden and, for the first time, I used a hose on the US side by connecting it to a spigot behind the State Parks bathroom.  It had to be a pretty long hose but, besides that, it really wasn't much more of a hassle than watering from the Mexican side and solved the issue of not being able to get to some of those new hard to reach plants.  Upon starting the watering, the Friendship Park agent yelled at me watering saying that no water was allowed to passs through the fence to the Mexican side.  Despite being extremely perturbed by this, I decided to obey (after yelling back "Are you serious?" as a gut reaction to the barked command) in order to not cause a rucus for the Posada starting in just an hour or so for which people were already arriving.  Through December and the beginning of Jan, there had been enough rain that at our first outing of the new year
on Jan 13th, a small group of volunteers got together and just weeded on both sides and had fun and made friends through the fence and learned about native flora and didn't need to water.  The next week it didn't rain at all and some Santa Ana winds dried the plants out a bit so on our second outing
on Jan 20th, the plan was to weed together and use the spigot on the Mexican side to water both sides.  We brought some buckets on the US side to fill through the fence, carry them out to the plants that were a little farther away.  Before beginning the work, this plan was explained to the Friendship Park Bord Patrol agent and he expressed that water cannot be passed through the fence. I interpreted this as not being able to fill the buckets through the fence but that spraying the US side from the Mex side would be ok (I admit this interpretation was somewhat influenced by wishful thinking/denial that the agent could actually be saying that no water could be passed through the fence at all).  We just went to work pulling weeds and planned to spray through the fence and fill buckets at the drinking fountian for the far away plants.  "¿Saben qué? Creo que sería buena idea mojar la tierra un poco para poder dehierbar mejor  (You know, I think it would be a good idea to wet the ground a bit in order to make it easier weed)," said Ricardo Arana, one of the main volunteers and coordinators of the garden who was working on the Mexican side.  So they proceeded to do so and when water crossed over to the area of garden on the US side, I heard the agent yell "STOP" and become very insistent.  The watering stopped and I went over to the BP agents vigilant white SUV unit 50 yds away.  Both he and I were very upset as he felt he was clear about no water through the fence and thought I was trying to get away with something and Ir was bewildered by the stupidity of not being able to pass water through the border fence and was wondering how the hell I was going to water the garden now.  We argued for a few mintues back and forth both telling each other that if the other went along with what the other wanted, it wouldn't affect our job duties.  In other words, both deciding that we knew more about the other's job than our own.  Both being reasonable people, we got over our anger rather quickly and he offered to check with his supervisors and see if it's ok for next time.  I was very tempted to water anyway to make a statement but held off for fear of endangering a working agreement to accomplish other goals being negotiatied by the larger Friends of Friendship Park coalition with the Department of Homeland Security for more access to the park in general.  The hour or so that remained for the time limit in the garden on the US side wasn't nearly enough time for fillng 1-2 buckets for each of the 60 or so plants at the drinking fountain 300 feet away with only 3 volunteers, so we watered the Mexican side and blew off steam by making jokes answering "Why did the Border Patrol agent stop water from crossing to the other side?", "Cause he wanted to protect his Water Gate", "In order to not get to the other side," etc.  Fortuneately, for the plants, it appears mother nature sided with the good spirited native plant enthusiasts when a tremendous storm came just a few days later and nurtured all three bi-national circles that make up the bi-national friendship garden of native plants and rusted the line of big metal tubes that run through the middle of them just a litte bit more.

How we water the garden

So the garden was planted in march of 2007 and watering was always done from the Mexican side because of the relatively easier access to water.  Before the secondary wall came in in April of 2009, the maintance/watering routine consisted of tending to the 15 or so plants (weeding, cleaning, and (re)making retetion circles) that formed the US portion of the binational garden and then cross over to Mexico on the beach a few hundred feet down the hill and walk back up to the garden to finish the job on the Mexican side and water the whole garden through the fence. I continued this routine even near the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 when the impending wall created a construction site.  I would ask the agent on duty for permision to step over the plastic mesh that had prohibited public access to the garden and surrounding area. Although the agents normally granted access, this action did cause a bit of confusion among border patrol and they decided the best way to handle the situation was to remove the garden on the US side.  But, eventually the garden was replaced and renewed and watering continued adjusting to and accomodating for various ever changing rules for access on the US side.  And, of course, when there were garden events, and access was allowed on the US side, people would work together through the fence and the garden would be watered again from the Mexican side.  Access to the garden on the US side for the public is still very restricted if allowed at all and volunteers are allowed to tend to the garden on the US side only with prior permission.  There was recently a new position created within Borer Patrol specifically for Friendship Park (where the garden is located).  In Nov of 2012, after the annual planting and expansion of the garden, watering was continued from the Mexican side although with a bit of difficulty reaching a new row of plants making a pathway on the Northern extreme of the garden about 30 ft from the barrier and 6-7 of the now over 100 plants, didn't get all the water they needed.