SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Manuel Rodríguez and a friend attempted to illegally cross the border by climbing over the two barriers in Otay Mesa just north of Tijuana’s international airport.
They paid smugglers $10,000 a piece for help in getting into the U.S. and for transportation to Long Beach, California.
After getting over the first wall and attempting to scale the second one, Rodríguez and his buddy fell about 30 feet.
Rodríguez said he injured both of his heels and ankles badly, but his friend suffered compound fractures in one leg and required hospitalization.
Rodríguez ended up at a Border Patrol station for processing where he says he got some painkillers, but not much else.
Within 24 hours, the 27-year-old Acapulco native was on a bus about to be deported into Tijuana.
Once south of the border, he recalled his ordeal, saying he felt cheated by the smugglers.
“I paid them so much money, which I had borrowed,” he said. “The idea was to get across and walk to a point where we would be picked up and taken to Long Beach where my sister lives, but the smugglers left us there and ran back into Tijuana.”
Rodríguez says he decided to come to the U.S. because securing steady work back home had become almost impossible since Hurricane Otis slammed into Acapulco in October 2023.
He told reporters his plan is to remain in Tijuana and try his luck finding a job so he can support his family back home.
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