Trump’s Wall Has Increased Migrant Casualties, Study

Donald Trump’s “impenetrable” border wall has resulted in increased migrant deaths and devastating injuries from falling, according to a new study that analyzed the effect of the new barriers on a southern California hospital.

The US replaced more than 400 miles of existing barriers that were between six and 17ft tall with a 30-ft steel wall, and added nearly 50 miles of new barrier under the former president, who campaigned on the promise of “securing” America’s borders and routinely demonized migrants.

The wall has been far from Trump’s promise of being “virtually impenetrable” – smugglers breached what he called the “Rolls-Royce” of barriers more than 3,000 times since its construction. Though the former president said his wall “can’t be climbed”, migrants have continued scaling the barrier, facing great peril. Last month a woman died while attempting to scale the wall in eastern Arizona after her leg became trapped in a climbing harness and she was left hanging upside down.

The University of California San Diego trauma center, which treats patients with border wall injuries, saw a five-time increase in the number of people admitted with falling injuries from 67 cases between 2016 and 2018 to 375 cases between 2019 and 2021. During that same time, the number of deaths rose from zero to 16, according to the report, which cites data from the San Diego county medical examiner’s office.

- theguardian