10 hospitalized after falling off US-Mexico border wall, California officials say

Ten people were hurt in falls off a 30-foot border wall between the United States and Mexico, California officials told news outlets.

Border Patrol agents encountered the injured migrants in the Tijuana River Valley near San Diego around 4 p.m. Saturday, March 2, officials told KGTV.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department firefighters took the people, some of whom had broken bones, to hospitals for treatment, KNSD reported.

“We did have some children that were accompanied there, so we did transport those children with the parents to the trauma centers throughout the city,” Battalion Chief Oscar Rodriguez told the station.

Several others who also climbed the 30-foot wall near Border Field State Park but did not fall were detained by Border Patrol agents, KUSI reported.

In 2023, border-area hospitals treated an average of one patient per day with injuries from trying to climb the border wall, USA Today reported.

Falls from the wall have “a mortality rate that is higher than COVID in the general population,” Dr. Susan McLean, surgical ICU medical director at University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, told the publication.