Thread: Mangled legs from border jumps common this summer

Mangled legs from border jumps common this summer

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Injured migrants lie in bed to heal at the Juan Bosco immigrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora. Both women broke both their legs jumping from the top of the international border fence. Photo taken Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Nogales, Sonora.

1 hour ago • By Perla Trevizo

NOGALES, Sonora — The 31-year-old Oaxaca native was dangling by one arm, a drop of more than two stories below her.

Slowly, her hand slipped and her legs slammed the desert floor with a bone-rattling thud.

She couldn't move. All she could think about was the 14-year-old daughter she had left behind — whom she might never see again.

Reports of migrants getting hurt when trying to jump the fence or trekking through the treacherous desert are not new, but immigrant shelters and Mexican officials are seeing a spike of migrants — especially women — getting hurt trying to jump the border fence.

They think, incorrectly, that the jump will be easier than making the treacherous trek through the 100-degree desert.

"It’s the same crossing through the wall or through the desert," said

Gilda Felix, director of the Juan Bosco immigrant shelter in Nogales, where many of the injured are brought before going home. "Both are difficult and dangerous.”

This year the Mexican Consulate in Tucson has seen more people needing medical attention after falling from the border fence than from crossing the desert, said Ricardo Pineda, the consul general.

So far this year, there have been 37 cases of injured Mexican migrants. In all of 2014 Pineda's office reported 56 cases. That includes all injuries, not just falling from the fence.

The Juan Bosco shelter is averaging about 20 to 30 injured men and woman a month, most of them with foot and spine fractures. One recent day Felix had three women with foot injuries.

“There always have been people crossing this way,” Felix said, "but now as the summer starts and it’s not cold, people want to cross."

COSTS HARD TO TRACK
Area hospitals are responsible for much of the costs associated with treating injured border crossers, but most don't keep track of how many there are or of the cost.

Many of the less seriously injured go to Holy Cross in Nogales.

When the injuries involve trauma, patients are taken to Tucson, either to University Medical Center or Tucson Medical Center.

The Trauma Center at Banner — University Medical Center doesn't specifically track falls from the border fence, but Border Patrol agents bring in about 50 crossers a year with fall injuries, said Katie Riley, a hospital spokeswoman. They include falls from the wall as well as in the desert. Most are fractures and lacerations.

The charges vary depending on severity of injury, she said. "We bill these patients, but few are able to pay anything, so most of the charges are written off."

TMC doesn't track the immigration status of its patients, hospital spokeswoman Rhonda Bodfield said. In 2014, TMC provided $13.6 million in uncompensated care costs, which includes charity care, bad debt and discounts for the uninsured.

Until several years ago, the federal government reimbursed hospitals for a small fraction of those expenses, but that source of revenue no longer exists.

Border Patrol agents regularly rescue injured migrants, officials said, but the agency does not keep data on injuries caused by falling off the fence.

The numbers of those who get hurt while trying to illegally cross into the United States ebbs and flows, said Fernando Valdez, Mexico deputy consul general in Nogales.

"What surprises us is that people continue to jump from heights that can be the equivalent of a two- or even three-story house," he said.

"But we hear they feel pressured to do it because they are holding the line or they start insulting them, telling them to jump."

The border fence near downtown Nogales, Ariz. on June 2, 2011.

The 31-year-old from Oaxaca, who asked not to be identified because she fears for her safety given the connection between smugglers and organized crime, said she chose the Nogales route because she was told it would be easy.

"I got here on May 8, a Friday, and they told me ‘by Sunday you'll be with your family,’" in Los Angeles, she said from a bunk bed at Juan Bosco — one of her legs in a cast and the other being held in place by metal rods. She had been there for 20 days.

When the smugglers she hired told her it was her turn to cross, she climbed the ladder — for which she paid roughly $13. But once she was on top she couldn't figure out how to come down and slipped.

One of the guides tried to grab her hand as she held on with the other.

She lay on the ground for two hours until a Border Patrol agent spotted her. She had broken both legs and her spine.

A DREAM ENDS
For some, the fence is a last resort.
Maria Ibarra, 28 and also from Oaxaca, had tried crossing through Nogales and El Paso in April, but both times she was sent back to Mexico.

This time she was determined to get through. She left her 10-year-old son with her parents in Oaxaca. He was born in South Carolina, where she lived for two years before going back to Mexico in 2006 so her parents and siblings could meet her son.

Once there, she said, her son started losing his hearing in one ear and having seizures.

"All I wanted was an opportunity to fight my case," she said. She hoped her son could join her or maybe she could get a permit to visit the hospitals where he was first treated. But she already had a couple of deportations and a voluntary return to Mexico.

On June 20, she was taken to the border fence and given a ladder. Her foot got caught in the bollard-style fence and she lost her balance.

At first she thought everything was fine, but then realized she couldn't stand.

She dragged herself to a nearby home and tried to hide from the Border Patrol.

"I knew I had broken something but it never crossed my mind it would be this serious," she said.

Eventually the Border Patrol found her.

"As they came in tears started to roll down my cheeks," she said. "I was broken, immigration was there. I had no way out."

She was taken initially to Holy Cross but her injury was too severe and she was transported to Tucson for surgery to reconstruct her foot.

Both women flew back to Oaxaca with the assistance of the Mexican consulate on Tuesday.

"I will tell my people not to come, not through the desert nor the fence," said the 31-year-old with two broken legs. She's looking at a six-month recovery before she can walk again, but now she can't work to pay for the needed therapy and continued medical care.

"We come with the hope of a better life," she said. "It's a nice dream, but when something like this happens, everything comes tumbling down."

http://tucson.com/news/mangled-legs-...7881cc8b5.html

Just a few snipers arranged irregularly on our side of the fence would likely put a stop to this in less than 30 days.

SHOCK: ARIZONA PAPER DECRIES BORDER FENCE AS TOO HIGH FOR MEXICANS TO SAFELY JUMP

Photo: Breitbart Texas/Brandon Darby

by BRANDON DARBY 5 Jul 2015 7

A mainstream Arizona newspaper is decrying the small section of the Arizona-Mexico border that has a 14-foot-high primary fence because it is too high for illegal immigrants to safely cross. The article, “Border Fence Jumpers Breaking Bones,” includes the claim that sections of the border with a 14-foot-high fence are “as tall as a two or three-story house” and tells the stories of several women who broke bones and were treated extensively to healthcare and surgeries at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. The writer never mentions any lives directly lost as a result of there not being a border fence in most sections, such as when Mexican nationals crossed into the U.S. and murdered father and husband Robert Rosas, a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

The article in question was written by Perla Trevizo for the Arizona Daily Star. In the excerpt below, note the section’s subtitle and the casual mention that the foreign woman had been deported multiple times prior:

A DREAM ENDS

For some, the fence is a last resort.
Maria Ibarra, 28 and also from Oaxaca, had tried crossing through Nogales and El Paso in April, but both times she was sent back to Mexico.

This time she was determined to get through. She left her 10-year-old son with her parents in Oaxaca. He was born in South Carolina, where she lived for two years before going back to Mexico in 2006 so her parents and siblings could meet her son.
Once there, she said, her son started losing his hearing in one ear and having seizures.

“All I wanted was an opportunity to fight my case,” she said. She hoped her son could join her or maybe she could get a permit to visit the hospitals where he was first treated. But she already had a couple of deportations and a voluntary return to Mexico.

Interestingly, the part about the woman hoping her son could join her is errant in not mentioning that once her son does join her in the U.S., the woman and her son would likely be permitted to stay because they would then be an incomplete family unit.

The assertion that the border fence is as tall as a two or three-story house came from Fernando Valdez, Mexico’s deputy consul general in Nogales, Arizona. He was quoted as stating, ““What surprises us is that people continue to jump from heights that can be the equivalent of a two- or even three-story house,” he said. “But we hear they feel pressured to do it because they are holding the line or they start insulting them, telling them to jump.”

The second part of his statement appears to be directed towards U.S. Border Patrol agents, but the writer left the intended direction of the assertion ambiguous. Of course, if that be the case, the Border Patrol routinely saves illegal immigrants’ lives, as the article inadvertently makes clear.

Mexican authorities routinely demonize and attack U.S. Border Patrol agents, even in cases where agents have acted in self-defense against the violent narco-traffickers or other violent individuals.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the advocacy article is that the writer did not mention why a segmented border security fence exists. The fence, which contrary to left-of-center media assertions does not encompass most of the border, was built largely to stop violent criminals from their routine entering and existing of U.S. communities. Two instances come to mind, though in both cases the “wall” has yet to be built in those specific segments.

In 2002, the FBI engaged in a sting operation in Sunland Park, New Mexico along the U.S.-Mexico Border. The effort was spurred by Mexicans routinely crossing the border and robbing trains of cargo. Mexicans would jump the small chain-link fence that served as the area’s only border security and rob the train cars. They would then simply jump back across the fence and U.S. authorities were powerless to stop them. Mexican authorities, often corrupted by the criminal organizations behind the robberies and thefts, did nothing to stop the crimes.
Two FBI special agents got separated from their group in the sting. One of them was a woman. The two agents were surrounded by dozens of Mexican nationals who beat them unconscious and caused severe injuries, including broken facial bones. A federal agent with knowledge of the incident spoke to Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity and said, “There were indicators that the Mexican nationals were trying to drag the unconscious body of the female FBI agent back with them into Mexico.”

This writer previously covered the issue in 2013 and wrote, “Only a few of the men were eventually prosecuted, as most were deported back to Mexico prior to prosecution. Unless something else happened or they moved, the men are still free and presumably operating in the area.”

The second case mentioned above is the murder of Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas. Border sensors went off in an area of California that has a small metal fence separating Mexico from the United States. Agent Rosas was dispatched to check on the sensors. As he arrived and walked up on a bluff, five Mexican nationals jumped him and ruthlessly beat him to death. He fought for his life, but they ultimately overwhelmed him. The Mexican nationals stole Agent Rosas’ gun and gear and then fled back into Mexico. It took years before Mexican authorities would cooperate and help Rosas’ family have peace and justice.

These are just two of the cases that encourage the building of border fences. The very nature of a fence is that it poses a difficulty or risk to unauthorized crossings in an area, such as in the recent issue of Barack Obama’s White House raising the height of their fence to keep unwanted people from crossing. In Arizona’s specific border situation, there exist two border sectors: the Tucson Sector and the Yuma Sector. Though the Yuma Sector is largely locked down with significant coverage of technology and a primary and secondary fence, the Tucson Sector is largely open. Most of the sector has no fence at all and can be freely crossed at the whim of any person in Mexico wishing to enter the United States. The video embedded below shows the reality of most of the Arizona-Mexico border.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journal...o-safely-jump/

http://www.alipac.us/f12/shock-arizo...y-jump-320902/

well in my book that not a wall &another thing you would not have a mangled leg if you stay home
how come obama has a wall to keep us out ? Hello
we want the same thing a good wall like trump want

It amazes me that these people do not think that having a rope would help them descend the fence safely. Is there a shortage of ropes in Mexico?

Originally Posted by artclam

It amazes me that these people do not think that having a rope would help them descend the fence safely. Is there a shortage of ropes in Mexico?

No shortage of rope.
Shortage of brains to figure it out.