One month after she fell, a migrant woman shared with NBC 7 and Telemundo 20 her experience after plummetting from the 30-foot high wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ana is still hospitalized and says that she doesn't know if she will fully recover after plummeting from a height equal to a three-story building. She is unable to walk due to her injuries and fractures and will need a lot of rehabilitation and money for her recovery, funds she does not have, she says.
During an interview from her hospital bed, where the 21-year-old has been since Oct. 22, Ana says that to cross illegally into the U.S., you have to be fast and be in control of your nerves. She said she has been living with that anxiety since the moment she left Michoacán, in Mexico.
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After she arrived in Tijuana by bus, she had no idea how she was going to cross into the U.S., Ana recalls, until she saw the border wall, a barrier where more than 900 people have fallen this year, according to a report by UC San Diego Health and Scripps, an increase of 58% compared with last year.
"It's just going up, and you hold on, and you get off, but the truth is: It's not easy," Ana said in Spanish.
Although human smugglers put up ladders to climb the wall, it's still not easy, and it’s not just the height. Crossers also fear falling, of course, but also getting caught by the Border Patrol. And once they're at the top, they have to hold on to a tube to slip through and get to the bottom..
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"And they pushed me and when I least thought they would," Ana said.
More than a dozen migrants were trying to scale the wall at the same time, Ana said, so when she was at the top, someone pushed her and she fell to the ground.
"I tried to get up but I couldn’t," Ana said.
Understandably, Ana couldn’t move after fracturing her spine and foot. So far, she has had two surgeries and does not know when she will be able to walk again. In addition to her physical pain, she is suffering emotionally since her 2- and 5-year-old daughters whom she entrusted to a person who crossed them through the San Ysidro Port of Entry days prior to her fall.
Ana's dream, she said, was for her daughters to have a better life than hers, a dream that is in limbo, since the only thing she can hope to do now is recover from her fall.
Ana said she regrets her decision to chase the American dream.
"I thank God — what happened to me was very serious but I am alive," Ana said.
Ana said she hopes her story prevents other migrants from risking their lives in search of a life in the U.S.
Since her hospital interview with NBC 7 and Telemundo 20, Ana has been discharged, but she does not have a bed to sleep in or a way to attend her rehabilitation if she leaves the hospital. Her biggest concern besides her pain, of course, are her daughters, who, at the moment, are being cared for by an acquaintance.
