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Cross-border wedding takes place after California ‘Door of Hope’ opens
Brian Houston, who lives in San Diego, kissed his bride, Evelia Reyes, who lives in Mexico, at the US-Mexico border. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — A United States man and a Mexican woman have wed between the doors of a steel border gate that is opened for only an hour or so every year.

Saturday’s wedding at Border Field State Park in San Diego was a first for an opening of 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 documents that made them husband and wife.

‘‘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 US 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 United States, Houston said, although that could take more than a year.

Border Patrol agents opened the gate in the border wall at noon for an hour, allowing waiting family members from the United States to walk partly through and meet and embrace relatives in Mexico for a scant three minutes each before tearfully saying goodbye.

It was the sixth time that the gate has opened since 2013, allowing people from the United States 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.

The gate opening took place about 15 miles west of where the eight prototypes for President Trump’s wall have been built.