SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Customs and Border Protection officials confirmed the death of a teenage boy in Jacumba, near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Authorities identified him as 13-year-old Dario Zamudio on Tuesday morning.
CBP officials said on Dec. 2, at around 11 a.m., the teen showed up at the border with injuries described as serious. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department told ABC 10News Monday afternoon the boy was injured in a car crash while in Mexico.
"The victim was then taken to the border wall in the belief medical treatment would be received quicker than in Mexico," the sheriff's department press release stated. "As deputies arrived on scene, they discovered the victim had already been brought onto the U.S. side of the border and was being treated by medical personnel on scene."
According to Cal Fire officials, crews responded to the area of 43700 Old Highway 80 within 30 minutes to perform CPR, but the teen passed away at the scene. The cause of his death is unknown, but the county medical examiner's office will determine the cause and manner of death.
Robert Vivar, who works closely with asylum seekers waiting along the border, said he knows what migrants are willing to risk for a better life in the United States.
“Some of the migrants that suffered some kind of injury," Vivar said. "The desperation in their eyes that you see. Even though they're injured, they're glad to have made it at least this far.”
Vivar said that desperation fuels their journey, but not everyone makes it to the end.
“Anybody that perishes trying to seek a better life is very sad, very emotional to us," Vivar said. "But that was somebody’s child, somebody’s grandchild.”
“We’re talking hypothermia," said Sam Schultz. "Exposure, small children, old people.”
Schultz brings food to migrants there every day. He said while they camp near the border, tents are their only shelter against strong winds and frozen ground.
He estimates there are more than 700 people waiting for asylum.
“We’re all being swamped by the amount of people. It’s really hard to stay on top of it. It looks like its going to be ongoing,” Shultz said.
