A four-year-old migrant boy was dropped from a border wall in San Diego before US Border Patrol agents and paramedics were gunned down from Mexico while caring for the abandoned child.
Surveillance camera footage released by Border Patrol Chief Raúl Ortiz shows a suspected smuggler hanging atop the barrier on the US side of the US-Mexico border on May 15.
A child can be seen sliding down the person’s leg, then falling to the ground and landing on their feet before asking them to wait to the side.
Moments later, the individual receives the four-year-old child from another person behind the wall and appears to lose his grip on the child, who crashes to the ground as the other child rushes to his side .
An adult migrant drops a four-year-old boy as he clung to the top of the US-Mexico border wall in San Diego on May 15. The US Border Patrol said the child was abandoned and treated by officers and paramedics who were shot. from Mexico
The person then climbs back over the wall and another adult is seen climbing up the wall and down to pick up the boy and carry him away.
Security video shows a second person climbing over the fence and walking the child down the dirt road.
The child who was knocked to the ground was abandoned and later rescued by border agents, who were shot. Officers and paramedics are unharmed.
“Officers reported hearing both impact and ricochet of gunfire off the secondary border fence just north of their location,” CBP said in a news release.
“With Emergency Medical Services, San Diego Fire Department and the child still at the scene, officers have ordered everyone in the area to cover up.”
Ortiz said the migrant child received medical aid and suffered no injuries.
“Remarkably, the child is doing well! Don’t trust the smugglers! Ortiz said.
The incident is reminiscent of the March 2021 border episode which showed a smuggler dumping two Ecuadorian migrant siblings over a steel barrier in New Mexico.
An officer at the controls of a surveillance camera alerted officers at the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station.
A unit was sent to a remote area west of Mount Cristo Rear near El Paso, Texas, and found the girls walking near the 14-foot-tall wall.
The girls walked away uninjured and were later reunited with their parents in the New York area.
A four-year-old migrant boy (circled) crashed to the ground during a smuggling attempt in San Diego. US Border Patrol agents were able to rescue the boy, who suffered no injuries from the frightening fall
An adult migrant (bottom left) carries a four-year-old boy after he fell off a border wall in San Diego before another adult descends from the balloon and escorts a second child
The release of the black and white footage from San Diego comes as President Joe Biden continues to seek support from global partners in the Western Hemisphere to find solutions to the southern border crisis.
Border Patrol had 28,717 migrants in custody on May 10, a day before the end of Title 42 of the pandemic era. On Sunday, it was down 23% to 22,529.
Removing the policy could certainly make matters worse, as smuggling networks continue to provide their services to individuals and families who are driven from South America to Central America through the perilous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama before continue their journey through Mexico.
Biden has only visited the US-Mexico border region once – in January – and handled the crisis by sending senior members of his administration to tackle the issue in his own time. name throughout the region.
El Paso sector chief patrol officer Gloria Chavez provides snacks to two Ecuadorian girls who were abandoned by smugglers and thrown over a 14-foot-tall border wall in New Mexico last Tuesday . An official at the Ecuadorian consulate in Houston told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that the children would be reunited with their parents, who reside in New York.
“No other president who has served in the Oval Office has the mileage, the understanding, the commitment that Joe Biden has had in the region. It’s just a fact,” said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2013. “It’s an important addition that Biden brings to the table.
Sarukhan said Biden’s approach has focused on engagement and negotiation, sending senior leaders to the region for talks and through invitations to Washington. “Biden didn’t put the gun to anyone’s forehead,” he said.
But immigrant advocates worry the cost of the new approach is likely to be borne by migrants fleeing persecution and poverty in their home countries.
“I think they are trying to manage migration, rather than stop migration,” said Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International. “But managing migration can also have human rights consequences, terrible human rights. There’s moral distancing — the ability to wipe your hands of a problem if it’s no longer on your doorstep.
