A show of support for immigrants during a charged political season took to the water this week as a dozen athletes swam across the border between the United States and Mexico.
NBC Los Angeles reports that twelve swimmers of varying nationalities made the trip from Imperial Beach, California to Tijuana, Mexico on Friday. The swim is about 10 kilometers, the same distance as an Olympic open water event. The swimmers started from Imperial Beach Pier in California and swam to Playa de Tijuana, a beach in Mexico.
The event was organized by 39-year-old Kim Chambers, an accomplished open water swimmer and one of only a few to complete the Ocean’s Seven open water swimming challenge. Chambers is originally from New Zealand but is a legal permanent resident in the United States. The group was made up of swimmers from the United States, Mexico, Israel, New Zealand and South Africa, according to ABC News. Chambers declined to characterize the swim as a protest, but did say the demonstration was born out of “an atmosphere of what she called negativity after the election of President Donald Trump,” according to ABC News. The swim was intended as a show of solidarity with immigrants.
The event also raised money for the Colibri Center for Human Rights, which is based out of Tucson, Arizona. The Colibri Center seeks to “end migrant death and related suffering on the U.S.-Mexico border,” per its website.
Chambers said she considered having the event start in Mexico and end in the United States, or swimming back and forth between the two, but found the U.S. to Mexico route to be the least complicated. The swimmers had their passports examined by Mexican authorities before they left California. The U.S. Border Patrol told the Associated Press that had the swimmers tried to swim into the United States, they would have been required to enter through an official border crossing.
Please dont bring politics into swimming or cover it…
Credit to Kim Chambers for her uncanny ability to think of swims that maximize her chances of getting in the newspaper. The Doc Counsilman quote about Diana Nyad comes to mind.
With all the good causes out there that need “swims” politicizing a swim like this lacks intelligence. Get over yourself Ms. Chambers, immigration is good for this country, just not illegal immigration.
>immigration is good for this country, just not illegal immigration.
That is how you rationalize being a racist. What immigration is good for this country? Immigrants with PhDs? Did you grand parent have a PhD when he came from Europe, or was he, most likely, a criminal and escaped prosecution? How will a poor person from Mexico come to USA for better life without illegally? Would you open doors for them and give them visa, or you do not really want them here?
A good swim ruined by political BS.
Not sure I get it, this was to protest the government’s new policy of enforcing the law of the land? Seems they could put this kind of energy into educating immigrants on how to become legal citizens.
It was a pretty good demonstration of why a physical wall is waste of money. Had they swim the other direction without telling anyone, US Immigration wouldn’t have known.
And that would have been illegal. When one immigrates illegally there could be awful consequences. One could enter legally and avoid that. I would surmise that any swimmers that returned to the US did so in the proper manner. The organization mentioned wants to help victims of their own poor choice, whether or not it was an act of desperation. Seems like a wall would help a lot. When you think it through even further, it makes you wonder why this has to be America’s problem, what kind of a neighbor is Mexico and their government that makes their own people need to flee? We have a lot of work to do but first get some law and order going… Read more »
Seems a wall would be very expensive.
I was loath to make this political but seems that’s where the comment section wants to take it sadly. And I thought Mexico was going to pay for it! Oh well maybe later down the road, right?
Spicer is trying to pass off a fence as a wall and even Breitbart wasn’t buying it. Just another broken campaign promise from Donnie.