CBP video shows woman falling to death from Otay Mesa border fence amid delayed rescue

A Guatemalan woman plunged to her death after she was stranded atop a 30-foot border fence near Otay Mesa for at least 24 minutes, in part due to a Border Patrol agent initially leading firefighters to the wrong location, according to videos of the March incident and information recently published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The videos, released under a relatively new policy requiring CBP to publicize footage and information about in-custody deaths, highlight the dangers faced by migrants trying to cross the taller border fences installed by the Trump administration. In large parts of the San Diego area, 30-foot bollards, or steel posts with narrow gaps, replaced barriers that once stood 10 or 20 feet high.

Officials from UC San Diego Health said the number of patients injured in falls has increased each year since 2019, the year the higher fences were installed. UC San Diego Health trauma center doctors treated 440 patients who fell from the higher fence last year, up from 42 patients in 2019.

“Case numbers are continuing to rise in 2024,” a UC San Diego Health spokesperson said.

The videos a...