Local hospitals are reporting a surge in migrants needing medical treatment after falling off the U.S.-Mexico border wall in the Southern California area.
Together, the University of California San Diego Medical Center and Scripps Mercy Hospital reported 629 people falling from the 30-foot-tall border wall severe enough to require hospital treatment in 2023. According to San Diego Union-Tribune. This year, that number has increased to 993 cases, and hospitals are expected to report more data this year. (Related: ‘This is what scares us’: Migrant caravan roars toward southern border as Election Day approaches)
The number of serious border wall collapses is up 58% from last year, and that percentage could rise even more if both hospitals report this year’s totals. The two Hillcrest hospitals provide trauma care along a roughly 30-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border from Tecate to the Pacific Ocean, according to the Tribune.
The two facilities combined are averaging more than two border wall falls per day, nearly double the number of incidents observed in 2021, according to the Tribune. It’s not immediately clear why falls are on the rise in this part of the border, but one person who runs a nonprofit organization that helps migrants in the area said Mexican authorities are increasing border enforcement efforts further east on the border. They theorize that this is due to stricter crackdowns. Migrants are forced to cross the border and cross multiple layers of border walls.
Top Shot – A group of Central American migrants, mostly Hondurans, scale the border fence between Mexico and the United States near the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, on November 25, 2018. , others try to knock down the border fence. (Photo credit: Pedro PARDO/AFP) (Photo credit: PEDRO PARDO/AFP, Getty Images)
“This has forced migration routes to move both east and west,” Pedro Rios, director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Program at the American Friends Service Committee, told the Tribune. “My conclusion is that this change means people will be passing through areas with more layers of border wall, which increases the likelihood of injury and death.”
Reports of migrants requiring serious medical treatment or even dying after attempting to scale the U.S.-Mexico border wall have been well-documented over the years.
In June, two Turkish migrants broke their legs after falling off a wall on the California-Mexico border. border security footage Released in July A Guatemalan woman was filmed screaming on top of the border wall moments before she fell to her death on the California-Mexico border.
Former President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency during his first term to secure funding for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, but Republicans have made border security a campaign item as they seek another term. It continues to be a focus. Although the Biden-Harris administration halted border wall construction shortly after taking office, it has since reverse course And he has restarted construction on the border wall, with Vice President Kamala Harris rebranding herself as a border hawk since starting her presidential campaign.
Spokespeople for UC San Diego Medical Center and Scripps Mercy Hospital did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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