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There are growing concerns about the safety of the new border fence in Friendship Park after an anti-climbing device has been added to the top.
Its purpose may be to deter attempts to scale the 30-foot structure, but migrant advocates say it is inhumane.
Friends of Friendship Park, a community coalition, was already locking horns with the federal government for increasing the border barrier to 30 feet. This anti-climb topper, though, has simply pushed some over the top.
“It is just simply inhumane, and we shouldn’t tolerate that,” Friends of Friendship Park member Pedro Rios said.
Rios noticed the feature being added to the new section of the western-most barrier between Mexico and the U.S. two months ago.
The design looks a little like an airplane wing. The round base sits on top of the fence line while the lip hangs over the Mexico side. If you are trying to climb the fence from the Mexico side, it makes it more difficult to get around the lip and more difficult to get a ladder hooked to it. Some say it’s more likely for someone to fall.
According to the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego, 29 Mexican nationals were killed trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border last year, and 120 were injured. The year before saw 42 killed and 124 injured.
“Border walls harm too many people, and they have become a public health issue,“ Rios said, adding that the fence’s added feature might reduce falls on the U.S. side but not on the Mexico side.
“If those statistics are suddenly reduced, then there is no way to account for the injuries that are taking place on Mexican side because they will no longer be registering on the U.S. side,“ Rios said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection tells NBC 7 the added feature is not new and that the toppers are deployed in other settings where new and replacement border barriers have been installed but couldn’t tell us where. They are used to mitigate fence climbing in urban environments.
Friendship Park was established for friends and families separated by this border to safely gather. Rios says these anti-climb devices foster a much different culture.
“They say that they are symbols of rejection, symbols that should be feared that people should not come together,“ Rios said.
The El Centro and San Diego sectors record the most barrier breaches in the fence line, Rios said. The section of border fence in Friendship Park is expected to be completed in another month.