Bordofarms Volunteers Create Urban Farming Project in Tijuana for Homeless US Deportees Sandra Dibble - U-T San Diego
go to original January 18, 2015

Bordofarms volunteers build boxes by the Tijuana River for an urban farming project aimed at helping U.S. deportees. (Facebook)

TIJUANA — It was an act of civil disobedience, carried out on federal land off a busy Tijuana thoroughfare in broad daylight. For hours on Saturday, volunteers built boxes, carted dirt and planted seedlings in what organizers say is the first step in an urban farming project aimed at addressing the issue of homeless U.S. deportees.

“These people want to work but nobody hires them, they have absolutely nothing,” said Miguel Marshall, 28, a member of Global Shapers Tijuana Hub, part of a World Economic Forum initiative that encourages young people around the world to come up with projects that address problems in their communities.

Spearheaded by a group of 20-something professionals, the Bordofarms effort for now consists of 30 raised beds planted with kale, beets, chard and two varieties of lettuce and set on a broad berm that overlooks the concrete channel of the Tijuana River. Their target population: the sizable number of deportees living in the channel inside holes dug in the ground or squatting inside storm drains.

The vision is to build vertical urban farms that would create jobs for the deportees, revitalize a blighted area, and serve as a source of food for the city. The idea was inspired by New York City’s High Line Park, an aerial greenway built on what used to be an elevated railroad track.

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