Dubai Telegraph - A higher wall, a Covid policy make the US border more deadly

EUR -
AED 3.902662
AFN 71.721309
ALL 97.379693
AMD 411.736337
ANG 1.916033
AOA 969.546232
ARS 1060.127839
AUD 1.625131
AWG 1.914127
AZN 1.801069
BAM 1.95799
BBD 2.146602
BDT 127.04809
BGN 1.957961
BHD 0.40045
BIF 3079.178589
BMD 1.062518
BND 1.422859
BOB 7.372594
BRL 6.109269
BSD 1.063139
BTN 89.778648
BWP 14.463859
BYN 3.479155
BYR 20825.362437
BZD 2.142898
CAD 1.481204
CDF 3048.36535
CHF 0.93686
CLF 0.037964
CLP 1047.547807
CNY 7.684238
COP 4713.916414
CRC 544.034137
CUC 1.062518
CUP 28.15674
CVE 110.873467
CZK 25.383911
DJF 188.83088
DKK 7.460262
DOP 64.017024
DZD 141.785204
EGP 52.286219
ETB 129.094855
FJD 2.403428
GBP 0.833407
GEL 2.911181
GHS 17.441278
GMD 75.96944
GNF 9170.597089
GTQ 8.215576
GYD 222.406682
HKD 8.263897
HNL 26.62657
HTG 139.832992
HUF 410.833148
IDR 16783.435843
ILS 3.990905
INR 89.664885
IQD 1391.899224
IRR 44737.341364
ISK 147.509645
JMD 168.928957
JOD 0.753435
JPY 164.266469
KES 137.598404
KGS 91.590977
KHR 4308.512491
KMF 489.156922
KRW 1495.616936
KWD 0.326842
KYD 0.885933
KZT 527.584963
LAK 23332.906547
LBP 95201.656596
LKR 310.88237
LRD 196.937992
LSL 19.305457
LTL 3.137341
LVL 0.642707
LYD 5.169153
MAD 10.541246
MDL 19.030182
MGA 4930.08572
MKD 61.689003
MMK 3451.018615
MOP 8.517928
MRU 42.388737
MUR 50.055102
MVR 16.426769
MWK 1843.46991
MXN 21.859829
MYR 4.714381
MZN 67.921539
NAD 19.306154
NGN 1777.25314
NIO 39.074133
NOK 11.766909
NPR 143.645436
NZD 1.791815
OMR 0.409087
PAB 1.063139
PEN 4.025844
PGK 4.265746
PHP 62.428268
PKR 295.327037
PLN 4.352023
PYG 8306.291093
QAR 3.868364
RON 4.977046
RSD 116.988606
RUB 104.392478
RWF 1451.40026
SAR 3.992277
SBD 8.862205
SCR 14.442803
SDG 639.107629
SEK 11.579093
SGD 1.422059
SLE 24.21852
SOS 607.24094
SRD 37.43785
STD 21991.987562
SVC 9.302844
SZL 18.732581
THB 36.986341
TJS 11.300434
TMT 3.72944
TND 3.344276
TOP 2.488527
TRY 36.515562
TTD 7.224421
TWD 34.473942
TZS 2828.280754
UAH 44.030751
UGX 3906.553553
USD 1.062518
UYU 44.822246
UZS 13632.112684
VES 47.682447
VND 26934.843765
XAF 656.722488
XCD 2.871509
XDR 0.800934
XOF 646.010986
XPF 119.331742
YER 265.443696
ZAR 19.237269
ZMK 9563.943308
ZMW 28.943737
ZWL 342.130521
  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    24.54

    -0.73%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    13.67

    +0.15%

  • BCC

    -2.0100

    141.13

    -1.42%

  • RIO

    -1.4000

    61.2

    -2.29%

  • JRI

    -0.3000

    13.22

    -2.27%

  • RBGPF

    0.0300

    60.22

    +0.05%

  • BCE

    -0.1600

    27.69

    -0.58%

  • CMSD

    -0.2100

    24.75

    -0.85%

  • BTI

    0.0900

    35.24

    +0.26%

  • RYCEF

    -0.1700

    7.16

    -2.37%

  • AZN

    0.4000

    65.19

    +0.61%

  • GSK

    -0.8300

    35.52

    -2.34%

  • NGG

    -1.2400

    62.9

    -1.97%

  • RELX

    -1.2100

    46.59

    -2.6%

  • BP

    -0.7600

    28.16

    -2.7%

  • VOD

    -0.8500

    8.47

    -10.04%

A higher wall, a Covid policy make the US border more deadly
A higher wall, a Covid policy make the US border more deadly / Photo: Frederic J. BROWN - AFP

A higher wall, a Covid policy make the US border more deadly

Horrific fractures, punctured lungs and a traumatic miscarriage: Jay Doucet has seen the severity of his patients' injuries worsen as more migrants fall from a growing border wall in their bid to evade a pandemic-imposed legal blockade.

Text size:

To the already imposing obstacles for people trying to enter the United States on its southern border, the Covid crisis added another: a quick-fix health rule called Title 42 that allows authorities to remove anyone simply because they might be carrying the disease.

And with no legal route into the country, migrants have been taking their lives in their hands.

"You and I wouldn't jump (from) a 30-foot wall, but they would," says Doucet, head of trauma at UC San Diego Health.

In 2019, the wall that straddles parts of the border between the United States and Mexico was raised in several places, fulfilling a campaign promise of then-president Donald Trump.

The increase, from 18 feet (5.4 meters) to 30 feet, was almost instantly noticeable for Doucet and his colleagues.

In the two years before the height increase, they saw 67 significant injuries; in the two years since, that figure has hit 375.

They have dealt with sixteen people who have died after falling from the wall in that time.

- 'We couldn't go back' -

"We have clear empirical evidence that these higher walls do not stop or divert migratory flows, but they do cause more serious injuries," says Carlos González Gutiérrez, Mexican consul in San Diego, who has been called to help hundreds of Mexicans hospitalized in the city.

The "wall" -- which for the most part is a fence -- runs through hills and dunes, out into the waters of the Pacific.

If it is imposing from afar, up close it seems enormous.

"I don't know how I got up, it was all very fast," said one migrant.

The woman, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, fled Colombia with her family because of threats of violence.

Her terrifying climb over the wall was a success.

Her daughter was not so lucky, falling and badly fracturing her ankle.

Even if they had known what would happen, they would still have climbed.

"We couldn't go back," she told AFP.

- Desperate -

"During the pandemic, many asylum seekers became very desperate and frustrated that they didn't have a method of presenting themselves at the port of entry," says Pedro Rios of the NGO American Friends Service Committee.

"And so this meant that many of them were crossing through very dangerous areas."

President Joe Biden's administration announced it would rescind Title 42 on May 23, but opposition from Republican-dominated states has tied the issue up in legal knots.

A judge is expected to rule on its fate this weekend.

For migration reform campaigners, Title 42 has been a failure: an immigration policy dressed up as a health policy -- and not fit for either purpose.

"Title 42 has created enormous human suffering," says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior policy adviser for the American Council on Migration, who points out that 2021 and 2022 will be the deadliest years on record.

A total 557 people died at the border in 2021, more than double the 283 deaths in 2018, before Title 42 and the wall's elevation.

Those deaths include dehydration and starvation from desert crossings, as well as people who drowned in rivers.

- Health -

Perversely, Title 42 may even have increased the number of people trying to cross illegally.

It provides for immediate removal with no legal consequences, so migrants who are caught and sent back can try to cross again without fear of imperiling a future asylum application.

US border patrol logged a record 1.73 million encounters with migrants in the 12 months to September 2021.

They are on track to surpass that figure this year.

"Many of these (are) the same individual crossing the border multiple times," says Reichlin-Melnick.

With the world's worst official death toll and a high domestic infection rate, the US is not keeping Covid at bay by refusing entry to Latin Americans, he says.

Opening the doors to Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion proves that Title 42 is not about health.

"There is no reason to admit thousands of Ukrainians and block Nicaraguans, Venezuelans or Haitians seeking asylum."

In his hospital office in San Diego, Doucet pauses at the sound of a helicopter bringing in another patient.

"I think we were very hopeful that a simple solution like a wall would make the problem go away," he says. "It's made things worse.

"People don't understand how desperate they are to come."

H.Hajar--DT