TIJUANA, Mexico – You can walk to the border, Francelia Menchaca's immigration lawyer told her, but don't put your fingers through the fence. It may hinder your paperwork, the lawyer said.

But when, after a year apart, Ms. Menchaca's mother arrived Saturday and put her hands up to the gate, Ms. Menchaca touched them.

"Were you anxious to touch my hand?" Ms. Menchaca asked in Spanish. Tears stood on her lashes.

"Yes," said her mother, Francisca Rodriguez, a resident of Tijuana, as her three grandchildren, including a 10-month-old girl she had never seen, strained to be near her.

In Mexico, Mother's Day is observed on May 10. The Menchacas, who drove from Phoenix, are among those who gather annually on that day along this kinder portion of the otherwise unforgiving border.

In Tijuana, only a rusty, weather-beaten fence separates the U.S. from Mexico. Modest openings here and there are just wide enough to slip a hand through.

Safe gathering spots such as these are few along this increasingly violent boundary, and Saturday may have been the last time families use them. Amid escalating drug wars, officials are fortifying the border.

But no one seemed to give that a thought as they waited for a glimpse of an anticipated arrival. Monica Alvarado, 42, of Tijuana brought beach chairs – one for her, and a smaller one for her year-old son, Ricardo – and set them near a plate-size hole in the fence. Her son Luis Jaime Cermaeno, 23, came from San Ysidro, Calif., to meet them.

Mr. Cermaeno, a construction worker who sends money to his family, said he misses his mom's tacos. So she prepared him plate after plate and slid them through the fence.

"He's a big guy!" she said in Spanish, spreading her arms.

Within the next few weeks, the U.S. government will build more fences in this beachside area. The idea anguishes visitors such as Mrs. Rodriguez, whose daughter and grandchildren lack the documents needed to cross the border.

"We're hoping that by next year, they have their immigration papers," she said, clutching a family photo album, as her grandchildren gathered daisies for her and pushed them through the fence.

Ashley Surdin,

The Washington Post

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