A four-year-old migrant boy was dropped from a border wall in San Diego before U.S. Border Patrol agents and paramedics came under fire after he had been abandoned.
Surveillance camera footage released by Border Patrol chief Raúl Ortiz shows an alleged smuggler clinging to the top of the barrier from the American side of the United States-Mexico border on May 15.
A child can be seen sliding down the person’s leg and then falling to the ground and landing on their feet before they are instructed to wait on the side.
Moments later, the individual receives the four-year-old from another person behind the wall and seems to lose their grip on the child, who crashes to the ground as the other child comes rushing to their side.
An adult migrant drops a four-year-old boy while clinging to the top of the United States-Mexico border wall in San Diego on May 15. U.S. Border Patrol said the child was abandoned and tended to by agents and paramedics who encountered shots fired from Mexico
The person then climbs back over the wall and another adult is spotted hoping over the wall and scaling down to pick up the boy and carry him away.
The security video shows a second person climbing over the fence and walking the child down the dirt path.
The child who was dropped to the ground was abandoned and later rescued by border officers.
Ortiz said the migrant child was provided medical aid and didn’t suffer any injuries.
‘Remarkably, the child is ok! Do not trust smugglers!’ Ortiz said.
A four-year-old migrant boy (circled) crashed to the ground during a smuggling attempt in San Diego. U.S. Border Patrol agents were able to rescued the boy, who did not suffer any injuries following the frightening fall
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An adult migrant (bottom left) carries a four-year-old boy after he fell from a border wall in San Diego before another adult climbed down the ball and escorted a second child away
The incident is reminiscent of the March 2021 border episode that showed a smuggler dumping two Ecuadorian migrant siblings over a steel barrier in New Mexico.
An agent manning a surveillance camera alerted agents from the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station.
A unit was dispatched to a remote area west of Mt. Cristo Rear near El Paso, Texas, and found the girls walking near the 14-foot-high wall.
The girls walked away without suffering any injuries and were later reunited with their parents in the New York City area.
El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez provides snacks to the two girls from Ecuador who were abandoned by human smugglers and dropped over a 14-foot high border wall in New Mexico last Tuesday. An official with the Consulate of Ecuador in Houston told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that the children will be reunited with their parents, who reside in New York
The release of the San Diego smuggling footage comes as President Joe Biden continues to seek support from global partners in the Western hemisphere to find solutions to the southern border crisis.
The Border Patrol had 28,717 migrants in custody on May 10, one day before the pandemic-era Title 42 came to an end. As of Sunday, it had decreased by 23 percent to 22,529.
The removal of the policy could certainly worsen the situation as smuggling networks keep providing their services to individuals and families that are led from South American into Central America through the perilous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama before they continue their journey through Mexico.
Biden has been to the United States-Mexico border region only once – in January – and had dealt with the crisis by dispatching high-ranking members of his administration to tackle the issue on his behalf across the region.
‘No other president who has sat in the Oval Office has the mileage, the understanding, the engagement that Joe Biden has had in the region. It´s just a fact,’ said Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2013. ‘That is an important add that Biden brings to the table.’
Sarukhan said Biden’s approach has focused on engagement and negotiation, by sending top leaders to the region for discussions, and through invitations to Washington. ‘Biden hasn´t put the gun to anyone´s forehead,’ he said.
But immigrant advocates worry there´s a cost to the new approach that will likely be paid by migrants who are fleeing persecution and poverty in their homelands.
‘I do think they are trying to manage migration, rather than end migration,’ said Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International. ‘But managing migration can also have human rights, terrible human rights, consequences. There´s a moral distancing — the possibility for wiping your hands of a problem if it isn´t at your door anymore.’
