There’s a growing trend with migrants getting hurt, or killed, trying to climb over the fences at the U.S.—Mexico border.
Over the weekend, a mass-casualty event occurred when 10 people fell from the fence near Tijuana.
Around 4 p.m., the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department received reports from Border Patrol that people climbing the fence fell.
When crews arrived at the scene on Saturday, they found 10 individuals, who were then taken to the hospital with various injuries, the worst being broken bones, according to SDFD Battalion Chief Oscar Rodriguez. Their ages ranged from 18 to mid-40s.
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Customs and Border Protection reported 34 deaths of people falling from border fences up to 30 feet tall since 2019 when the Trump Administration began making the fences taller. That’s compared to the two deaths in the five years before 2019.
“It's not working,” said Lilian Serrano with Southern Borders Communities Coalition. “It's not, and it will never work.”
CBP’s message to migrants looking to cross illegally is: “Don’t do it. When migrants cross the border illegally, they put their lives in peril. The terrain along the border is extreme, the weather is severe, and the miles of desert migrants must hike after crossing the border in many areas are unforgiving.”
CBP also warns about smugglers it said are lying to migrants and telling them the border is open when it isn’t. The smugglers are in it for the money and abandon migrants in remote, dangerous areas, according to CBP.
Serrano said the risks that come with crossing illegally pale in comparison with what migrants face if they stay.
“People will continue to come as long as migrants don't have anywhere else to go,” Serrano said. “As long as people are being forced to leave their homes, people will continue to take very dangerous routes to make it to our country looking for safety.”
Serrano is pushing for more discussions about managing migration to the U.S. and expanding the ways in which migrants can travel safely and legally.
