US Customs and Border Protection released a statement on Friday stating that a Guatemalan migrant woman died after falling roughly 30 feet from the top of a border fence near a California port of entry.
The woman became stranded atop the secondary barrier near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego on March 21, pleading for help for more than 20 minutes before falling onto pavement and sustaining serious head injuries, according to a CBP statement, which finally confirmed the incident on Friday.
The Otay Mesa Port of Entry is one of three ports of entry in the San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan area.
At approximately 10:30 p.m. PDT, border agents were aware that a lady was attempting to scale the fence. The barrier at that point is around 30 feet tall and consists of vertical metal bollards.
Agents attempted to discourage the woman from climbing the fence, but she would not comply with their verbal commands.
About 18 minutes later, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department arrived, but according to CBP officials, the firetruck couldn’t make a tight turn to deliver a ladder close enough to use.
Agents heard the woman beg for help many times before she fell from the fence at 10:54 p.m. PDT, 23 minutes after she was discovered, and became stuck.
Firefighters were able to reach the woman around 10 minutes later and perform CPR before a physician on the phone declared her dead.
Officials confirmed that CBP agents’ body cameras recorded part of the encounter.
The San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office have assumed custody of the investigation into the woman’s death.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to determine an official cause of death. The department’s website does not yet include the case.
The San Diego Fire Department Professional Standards Unit, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and the Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Standards are all conducting internal reviews of the event.
The Otay Mesa Port of Entry is the third busiest commercial land border crossing between the United States and Mexico. It is also the site of numerous illegal crossing attempts by migrants from Central and South America.
In 2021, a lady died while attempting to swim around a fence on Tijuana’s southern border with the United States near San Diego.
