Cross-Border Wedding a First at Annual 'Door of Hope' Opening

The doors of a steel border gate opened for about an hour on Saturday, allowing short reunions and a wedding. An American man and a Mexican woman wed between the doors, which open briefly every year.

Saturday's wedding at Border Field State Park in San Diego was a first for the gate, known as the Door of Hope. Evelia Reyes, wearing a white wedding dress with train and veil, embraced Brian Houston of San Diego after signing marriage documents.

"It's a statement that love has no borders," Houston told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Even though we are divided by a giant fence here, we can still love each other on both sides of the fence."

Houston, a U.S. citizen, said he couldn't go into Tijuana for reasons he declined to explain, but spoke daily with his bride. The couple has an attorney who is trying to obtain a green card for Reyes to join Houston in the U.S., he said, although that could take more than a year.

Border Patrol agents opened the gate at noon for an hour, allowing waiting family members from the U.S. to walk partly through and meet and embrace relatives in Mexico for just three minutes each before tearfully saying goodbye.

It was the sixth time that the gate has opened since 2013, allowing people from the U.S. and Mexico who cannot legally cross the border to visit without fear of deportation. At other times, families can talk but not touch through the steel fencing.

To arrange the wedding, the couple worked with Enrique Morones, executive director of the Border Angels group that organizes the gate openings. Morones said the group gets many meeting requests from families and forward the names to the State Department, which conducts checks and makes the final decision on who will be allowed to briefly reunite.

The gate opening took place about 15 miles west of where the eight prototypes for President Trump's proposed border wall have been built. "While some people want to build walls, we want to open doors," said Morones.