Woman dies after falling from border wall, CBP says two months after incident

A woman died while she was tied to two other women who were attempting to climb over the U.S.-Mexico border wall less than 7 miles southwest of the El Paso, Texas, port of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said more than two months after the incident occurred.

The federal government and El Paso County officials are reviewing the Nov. 18, 2023, incident, which was only published Tuesday by CBP.

On the afternoon of the death, an agent saw on a video surveillance system that a person was on top of the International Border Barrier and two others were north of the wall, and the agent made an announcement about it on the service radio. Another agent in a marked Border Patrol vehicle drove toward the location and reported seeing three adult women fall from the barrier and land on each other. 

The responding agent requested emergency medical services and "assisted the injured females by cutting a rope that the women had tied to each other," per CBP. 

"The agent then placed each woman into a recovery position. Additional responding agents apprehended four male individuals in the immediate area," the border agency also said. 

The El Paso Fire Department and medical personnel arrived on the scene 20-30 minutes after the responding agent first saw the fall. Officials treated two of the women, but the third woman, who was later identified as a Mexican citizen, "suffered significant head injuries and was unresponsive with no pulse," so EMS personnel ceased lifesaving measures, according to CBP. 

The surviving women were interviewed at the hospital and said that they began to panic when their group's guide told them Border Patrol was approaching the area. The ensuing chaos caused one woman to try to climb down the barrier while two other women were below her. Because they were all tied together, when one woman panicked, all three of them fell from the wall. 

The El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner autopsied the deceased woman on November 20, but the details are still pending. 

The incident occurred the same month that border officials encountered more than 240,000 illegal immigrants, marking the highest number of encounters for any November on record. 

It is unclear why CBP issued a statement about the incident two months after it occurred.

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