SAN YSIDRO, Calif. (KGTV) — A person trying to climb over the border wall in San Ysidro fell and died Monday night, while another fell and was seriously injured.
For the past several years, ABC 10News has covered a rise in traumatic injuries related to border wall falls. A migrant advocacy group even set up this tent to help the injured, but despite this recent tragedy, they tell me they’re seeing fewer people falling from the wall.
It’s an empty space between these 30-foot steel towers and the Mexican border.
“We’ve seen a dramatic change," said Adriana Jasso with the American Friends Service Committee. "It’s almost as if it’s a different place.”
Jasso used to help hundreds of asylum seekers here daily. I first met her a couple of years ago when she was handing them food and water while they waited to speak with border patrol agents. We spoke again last October about an increase in migrants getting injured while trying to climb the wall.
“We have some of the minimum items, baby formula coffee,” Jasso said inside their makeshift tent near the border wall.
I followed through with her on Tuesday to see how that narrative has changed in the last few months.
"We have seen a dramatic drop of people. We haven’t seen people waiting since February 15.”
Not only are there fewer people coming to the border, there are also fewer injuries. I asked nearby trauma centers how many people they've recently treated for border wall falls. Scripps Mercy Hospital gave me these numbers, showing a significant decrease since July of last year. UCSD Health says it has also sharply reduced border fall trauma admissions since January.
“It seems it feels unpredictable with military personnel and implementation of the wire on both fences.”
Jasso attributes this drop in migrant injuries to the heightened security at the border but worries that people will find more dangerous routes into the U.S.
