Report: Drownings, rescues spike with migrants swimming around ocean barrier




by: Salvador Rivera
Posted: Mar 28, 2024 / 01:45 PM CDT
Updated: Mar 28, 2024 / 01:45 PM CDT




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SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Migrants trying to swim around the border barrier that juts out into the Pacific Ocean between San Diego and Tijuana are dying and having to be rescued more than ever, according to a KPBS investigation.

Tijuana Lifeguard Capt. Luis Hernandez told KPBS they had just five rescues and only seven in 2020 and 2021, respectively, but the numbers shot up to 59 in 2022 and 41 last year.

Lifeguards from both sides of the border are reportedly seeing the difference.

“It weighs heavy on some people,” said Jason Lindquist, the marine safety captain in Imperial Beach, California, the American city just north of the border. “In the last two years, we’ve had way more fatalities than we’ve ever had.”

In this area, often photographed by visitors, the border barrier sticks out into the water 200 feet, and lifeguards and the U.S. Border Patrol have warned migrants for years about the area’s strong currents, whirlpools and riptides that are created by the surf as the wall bisects the waves.

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Border Patrol officials have also stated, in the past, that some migrants venture into the water with backpacks that can weigh them down, making it harder to float.

“This isn’t like swimming in a pool,” Hernandez said. “There’s no ledge that you can just grab onto when you need to catch your breath.”

The wall structure can also cut and scrape swimmers, which can cause infections because of the high bacteria content in the water.

“If the current pushes you against that fence, that’s a dangerous situation because you can’t get off it,” Lindquist said. “So the fence is dangerous, the current is dangerous, and the water is polluted every single day.”

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According to the KPBS report and Hernandez, many migrants wrap their arms around metal poles as they try to get around the barrier, using shellfish and mussels stuck to the bottom of the wall as “makeshift steps,” which can lead to injuries.

“They’re like small knives,” Hernandez said. “We’ve rescued people with cuts on their chest, arms and legs — those cuts can easily get infected in Tijuana’s notoriously polluted water.”

Hernandez told KPBS his lifeguards on the Mexican side often straddle a fine line when rescuing migrants in the water as they try to avoid claims they are helping people get to the U.S. side of the barrier.

He also said whenever someone is struggling in the water near the border wall, they often refuse help when the lifeguards swim up to them to rescue them.

“They shout, ‘No let me go, I’m trying to get across,'” said Hernandez. “We can’t just stay there and help them along because we don’t want the Border Patrol to misinterpret the situation.”

At times, when conducting a rescue, the currents pull Mexican lifeguards to the U.S. side of the barrier and Border Patrol agents in boats will give them a ride back to the Tijuana side.

In some instances, Imperial Beach lifeguards also use jet skis to pluck their Mexican counterparts from the water before dropping them off south of the border, Hernandez said.


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UC San Diego professor Peter Lindholm and student Anna Lussier reviewed available data on migrant deaths and have reported that drownings have increased significantly since 2019 when the Trump administration replaced an existing border wall with a taller one prompting migrants to find alternative ways to get into the U.S.

There was only one drowning in four years before the wall was replaced. During the following four years, there were 33, according to Lindholm and Lussier.


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In more recent years, the Biden administration has continued to replace the border wall in San Diego.

“It’s important for the lifeguards, emergency response systems and the UC Health System to know if we have a lot of drowning-related accidents coming in,” Lindholm said.


https://www.borderreport.com/immigra...ocean-barrier/