Residents along U.S.-Mexico border shrug off Trump’s wall plan

EL CENTRO, the United States, Feb. 7 (NsNewsWire) — “Trump’s border wall? … Well, I think it’s just kidding,” Brenda Gonzalez joked around with his customers.

Originally from Mexico, Gonzalez is now a front desk manager at a Holiday Inn Express hotel in El Centro, California, 350 kilometers southeast to Los Angeles, reports Xinhua.

“Tell Trump to offer me a job when he starts to build the wall,” A Caucasian co-worker said to Gonzalez, while getting ready to start his shift at the front desk.

Just a few months ago, this young man moved from Eastern Los Angeles to the largest city in the Imperial Valley, only 6.8 kilometers north of Calexico, a smaller town divided by fence with Mexicali, a Mexican city.

This three-story Holiday Inn Express is a standing-out building in El Centro, owned by an immigrant from Eastern India.

Ten years ago before this hotel first opened to business, local residents in El Centro thought motels were good enough for this city since only truck drivers would sleep over at town. But now, with the development of border trading, El Centro is growing and getting international, with chain restaurants and supermarkets. In Calexico, many of the shop owners are Korean.