MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL SIGN-ON LETTER FOR CBP

TO: Mr. Paul Enriquez / Real Estate and Environmental Infrastructure Portfolio Deputy Director / Program Management Office Directorate / U.S. Border Patrol

FROM: Concerned Medical Professionals

via email to: sandiegocomments@cbp.dhs.gov

Dear Mr. Enriquez:

We are responding to your September 12, 2022, solicitation for input regarding the repair of border infrastructure at Friendship Park, the historic binational meeting place on the U.S.-Mexico border. We understand that U.S. Border Patrol officials are proposing to replace existing 18-FOOT BARRIERS with 30-foot WALLS at Friendship Park. Out of concern for the safety of the public we urge U.S. Customs and Border Protection to abandon this proposal.

Thirty-foot border walls have led to an increase in deaths of people attempting to scale them, causing tremendous suffering to those that have lost their loved ones, and exacerbating a longstanding humanitarian crisis.

Taller walls have also led to a five-fold increase in serious traumatic injuries to our local trauma units from 2019 to 2021 in San Diego and Imperial Counties. According to acute care specialists at UC San Diego, the types of injuries sustained by individuals who have fallen from border walls include “significant brain and facial injuries and complex fractures of their extremities or spine. Many required ICU care and multiple surgical procedures.”

Since most people injured from border wall falls do not have medical insurance in the United States, any necessary follow-up care was simply not possible, and this contributed to longer and costlier hospital stays. Amy Liepert, MD, medical director of acute care surgery at UC San Diego Health, has stated that “future policy decisions along the U.S.-Mexico border should include assessments of the effects of new barriers, including humanitarian consequences and potential effects on local health care system resources.”  

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials must consider these factors in its deliberation about what type of structures it intends to build at Friendship Park. We believe the current plans to build two 30-foot border barriers at this unique location will exacerbate this public health crisis and must be averted at all costs.

We, the undersigned, implore you to:

  1. Cancel plans for new 30-foot walls at Friendship Park to comply with the Biden Administration’s pledge, as stated in its June 2021 Plan for Use of Border Barrier Funds, to “end wall expansion to the extent permitted by law.”
  2. Repair the existing barriers to address the safety concerns identified in CBP’s notice of September 12, 2022.
  3. Invest instead in the forward-looking conversation that is unfolding with community stakeholders, spearheaded by the Friends of Friendship Park.

Sincerely,