Pregnant Guatemalan Woman, Unborn Child Die After Falling From Border Wall: Officials

A mix of Normandy vehicle barrier and taller border fence by the San Pedro River on the U.S.-Mexico border near Sierra Vista, Ariz., on May 8, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed a 19-year-old Guatemalan woman who was pregnant died on Tuesday after falling from the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Officials said the woman, identified as Miriam Estefany Giron Luna, was found by agents in Clint, Texas, on March 7 before an ambulance was called to the site. Giron Luna was taken to the hospital and underwent an emergency C-section.

“Despite the best efforts of our Border Patrol agents and medical professionals, sadly more lives have perished at the hands of human smugglers,” said El Paso Border Patrol sector Chief Gloria Chavez, according to USA Today.

“Someone in Mexico guided this eight-month pregnant woman from Guatemala to this section of the border and encouraged her and helped her climb the steel mesh border barrier,“ she added. ”We will engage our law enforcement partners in Mexico to find those responsible for placing these lives in danger.”

Guatemala’s consulate confirmed that Giron Luna was about seven or eight months pregnant when she attempted to climb the wall.

Dilver Israel Diaz Garcia, the pregnant woman’s 26-year-old companion, is now in the custody of the Border Patrol, Guatemalan officials said.

“He said that if he had known that the risks were this high, he would not have done it,” Tekandi Paniagua Flores, the Guatemalan consul in Del Rio, Texas, told The Associated Press.

CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan told AP that the pair were taken to the border by smugglers before they were left there in the darkness.

Last summer, a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman was found dead in a canal near El Paso near the border highway, the consulate said at the time. The woman, Vilma Mendoza, had entered the United States in July and was waiting for her asylum hearing in Mexico, reported CBS News.