Migrants are falling off Trump's 30-foot steel border wall into the U.S. and breaking their legs
Since October, paramedics and Border Patrol have responded to 229 injuries as migrants scale Trump's wall and then fall 30 feet onto U.S. soil.
EL PASO, Texas — When President Donald Trump’s commissioner of Customs and Border Protection toured a stretch of the new 30-foot high border wall here in August 2020, he told the local newspaper that its steel beams were “impressive.”
“It really does, I think, physically represent exactly what we’ve been trying to do since Day One,” Commissioner Mark Morgan told the El Paso Times. “That is to give Border Patrol increased operational capacity to do what they they need to do to protect the country.”
A young migrant woman is taken into an ambulance after suffering an apparent injury to her leg after falling from a nearby border wall in Sundland Park, N.M. NBC NewsFlash forward nearly two years and, as of Friday morning, illegal border crossings are at an all-time high and Border Patrol agents and local paramedics have responded to 229 injuries since October 2021, including some fatalities, as migrants scale the Mexican side of the steel barrier and then fall 30 feet onto U.S. soil.
On a ride along with Border Patrol agents, NBC News saw the aftermath of one of the most recent injuries, a teenage girl who agents say fell from the top of the wall and was found alone at the bottom. She struggled to catch her breath and writhed in pain as paramedics secured her to a stretcher and loaded her into an ambulance.
2021: Trump makes final visit as president to border wallJan. 12, 202106:48 “This little girl was exploited by a smuggler," Agent Valeria Morales said. "She was forced to scale the border barrier and she fell.”
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