Traffic is seen at El Paso port of entry, Bridge of the Americas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
U.S. authorities are conducting an internal review after a Honduran suffered a fatal fall while climbing the U.S.-Mexico border wall near El Paso, Texas.
The drama happened on Jan. 15 at 10:52 p.m. when U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Paso Station responded to a sensor activation about four miles east of The Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry, officials said in a news release this week.
Using a flashlight, a border patrol agent saw a man in the All-American Canal between a chain link fence and the wall north of the Rio Grande River. Other agents arrived, and the man ran across the canal and climbed the wall.
Authorities said that agents ordered him to stop but did not chase him as they were behind a chain-link fence with no access gate nearby.
The man got to the top of the wall but fell as he climbed down the other side. He landed on a concrete trench on the south side of the border.
Officials said he was hospitalized, intubated, and placed on blood pressure support and a ventilator. He died at the hospital five days later.
Officials said customs agents with the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility responded to the hospital, collected radio recordings of the response and regularly monitored the man’s medical condition.
Officials said that the unit, which investigates the actions of its employees, is reviewing the case. Officials said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General was also notified.
On Feb. 3, a man from Mexico fell to his death trying to scale the wall using a ladder near the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego.
Agents heard something hitting the ground and found the man with a severe head wound, unconscious, not breathing, and with no pulse.
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