Migrant Impaled on Rebar After Falling Off San Diego Border Wall

San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents rescued a Central American migrant woman who nearly fell to her death from the international border wall. She and her two children fell from the wall as she attempted to illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico and landed on a piece of rebar that pierced her buttocks.

San Diego Sector agents patrolling east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry on November 23 responded to a call about a woman attempting to climb over the international boundary with two young children. The woman fell with her children and landed on a piece of steel rebar, according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.

The Border Patrol agents provided initial medical assistance and contacted the San Diego Fire Department for EMS services. After providing initial treatments, the EMS personnel transported the woman to a California hospital for non-life threatening injuries. The rebar caused injury to her side and buttocks, officials stated.

The EMS technicians also transported the children, a three-year-old and a five-year-old, to the hospital for observation.

Agents identified the woman as a 26-year-old Guatemalan national.

“Entering our country illegally, particularly over our walls is not only dangerous, but also very foolish,” San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rodney Scott said in a written statement. “This woman placed her own life and her children’s lives in peril. She could have easily died if not for the quick response by our agents and EMS.”

It was not immediately clear if the woman is part of the migrant caravan groups that are currently in Tijuana, Mexico, attempting to make their way into the U.S. to apply for asylum.

The hospital treated the woman and checked out the children. Doctors released them to the custody of U.S. Border Patrol agents, officials reported.

CBP Officials cautioned migrants that the area where the incident took place is currently an active construction zone where 14 miles of new border wall is being installed to replace the “decades-old landing mat wall.”