Pregnant teenager dies after falling from US border wall

A pregnant teenager from Guatemala has died from injuries suffered after falling while attempting to climb the US border wall near El Paso, Texas.

Mirian Stephany Girón Luna, just 19 years of age, fell more than 19 feet trying to climb the wall last Saturday. The US say Girón was eight months pregnant, whereas Guatemalan authorities said she was at seven months.

US Customs and Border Protection blamed the death on "human smugglers" who apparently encouraged the young woman to try and climb the wall. They believe Girón and her partner were taken to the wall under cover of darkness and left there by smugglers. She suffered a cerebral haemorrhage, a pelvis fracture, and liver and kidney lacerations. Medical authorities were contacted when Border Patrol agents arrived but it was too late to save her.

The story is an example of the heartbreaking risks people take for a better life, and the brutal and the devastating human cost of president Trump’s border wall.