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A Mexican man died of serious injuries after falling from the border wall in Texas, Border Patrol said.
The 31-year-old was spotted climbing the border barrier on the Mexican side on March 16 west of the Paso Del Norte International Bridge in El Paso, the agency said in a press release Sunday.
When agents arrived, the man was lying unconscious on the US side with injuries to his upper body and head.
The man was given medical care and eventually taken to an El Paso hospital where he was placed on life support the day after his fall. On March 22, the man died after being taken off life support.
The man’s death is part of a growing number of injured immigrants who are entering the US illegally by climbing the border wall, El Paso immigrant advocate Ruben Garcia told The Post Monday. As the director of Annunciation House, the largest immigrant shelter in El Paso, Garcia said he’s seeing immigrants who’ve hurt themselves on the wall two or three times a week.
“We’re receiving a 23-year-old ingenious woman from Guatemala who fell off the fence– fractured her ankle and then fractured her back. She’s coming to us in a wheelchair. We get those all of the time, all of the time,” said Garcia.
Immigrants who pay smugglers to get them into the country are able to negotiate multiple attempts over the border wall, which can be 30 feet high in some places, said Garcia.
“You need to understand, if I’m a smuggler, there’s only one issue,” Garcia explained. “There’s only one consideration and that’s money. I’m going to help you get on top of that fence. I’m going to give you a ladder, or just a rope with knots that you’re supposed to be able to climb. As you come down, then you’re on your own.”
Makeshift ladders and other climbing instruments are often found by Border Patrol agents along the wall in El Paso, reported the El Paso Times. A “camouflage ladder” was found along the border wall on Feb. 13 and removed by the Border Patrol.
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