SEATTLE - Six Colombian migrants were taken to a San Diego hospital for varying levels of injury after falling from the border wall near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents said.
The group of migrants consisted of four men and two women, who were all in need of medical assistance when CBP agents first encountered them. They requested emergency medical services to pick up the migrants and transport them to UC San Diego Medical Center for treatment. No details were provided about specific injuries of if any were considered life-threatening.
This is far from an isolated case, as reports of injuries sustained from attempting to cross the border wall, both fatal and non-life-threatening, have been on the rise along the San Diego sector of the U.S.-Mexico border over the last few years, following Donald Trump's move to increase sections of the border to 30 feet tall.
Dr Alexander Tenorio, a neurological surgery resident at UC San Diego Health, told local media earlier this year that his hospital's trauma center has seen 10 times as many migrants with severe injuries compared to 2019, the same year when the wall was raised to its current height.
Tenorio said that, between 2016 and 2020, the trauma center treated 12 spinal fractures suffered by migrants trying to climb the southern border wall. But once the wall was raised, these fractures increased to more than 100 over a two-year period.
In 2019, prior to the change, UCSD Health had reported treating fewer than 60 patients who had fallen from the border wall. But that number jumped to upwards of 450 in 2021 alone. On the other side of the border, the Mexican consulate reported that 29 Mexican nationals died in 2023 from such falls while trying to cross into the San Diego region, and another 120 were hurt.
Brain injuries have also been a common injury for migrants trying to climb the border wall. "We've definitely seen an increase since the border wall was raised to 30 feet at the end of 2019...Not only are the numbers going up, but the severity of these injuries—it's much, much worse," Tenorio said earlier this year.
In March, 11 people were hurt in a single day after trying to climb over the wall. Ten of those people were taken to the hospital with mild to moderate injuries, while the other person was not hospitalized.
During the first five months of 2024, ten migrants have either died or been killed while trying to unlawfully cross the border between San Diego and Tijuana, including six that died after falling from the border barrier according to Enrique Lucero, director of the Migrant Affairs Office in Tijuana.
"We understand the desperation, but it's not worth risking your life, the legal path is through the CBP One app, it's the only guarantee to at least get an interview with an immigration officer, and it's safe and secure," said Lucero.
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