Three Migrants Fall From Border Wall in California: Report

By Robert Birsel

Reporter

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Three migrants reportedly fell off the U.S.-Mexico border wall after scaling it in Southern California and were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to a CBS affiliate.

Newsweek contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment.

Why It Matters

Unlawful crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped to their lowest level in more than half a century, according to data released on October 7 from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The three—two women and a man—were detained in the Otay Mesa neighborhood in San Diego County after San Diego Fire-Rescue Department personnel were called out, CBS8 reported.

The apparent fall comes as plans are underway to improve the border wall in the area to boost security.

What To Know

The migrants were conscious and breathing when they were taken to hospital just after midday Friday. Details of their condition were not released, per CBS8, citing comment from San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokeswoman Candace Hadley.

The wall in the area, which is opposite the Mexican city of Tijuana, is 30 feet high. A Border Patrol agent in the San Diego Sector said the three had apparently fallen off the wall after scaling it from the Mexican side.

"Border Patrol agents from San Diego Sector encountered three individuals who appeared to have fallen from the border barrier west of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry after illegally entering the country," Border Patrol Agent Eugene Wesley said in a statement.

The DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently awarded $4.5 billion in new contracts funded by President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act to expand wall construction along the Southwest.

The projects will add roughly 230 miles of new “Smart Wall” barriers and nearly 400 miles of integrated surveillance and detection systems, which include lighting, cameras and sensors.

The plans also include nearly 10 miles of new border wall in two high-traffic areas of San Diego County, including near Otay Mesa, CBS8 reported in September.

Environmentalists say the wall breaks up critical wildlife habits and blocks the migration of species like bighorn sheep and mountain lions along the California-Mexico border.

What People Are Saying

DHS chief Kristi Noem, in an October statement: “We have had the most secure border in American history and our end-of-year numbers prove it. We have shattered multiple records this year and once again we have broken a new record with the lowest number of Southwest border apprehensions in 55 years. Under President Trump, we have empowered and supported our law enforcement to do their job and they have delivered.”

Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, to CBS8 in September: “These wildlife have evolved for millennia to migrate freely across the border in search of food and water. Now we’re building this solid wall that will effectively wall off the entire state of California.”