CHULA VISTA, Calif. — When Christina Rubio suddenly became paralyzed while visiting her grandfather in Mexico, Border Patrol agents asked for permission to open the gate in order to bring her home for medical care.
“I couldn’t feel my legs,” Rubio, a U.S. citizen, told 10news. “I tried to get up and I couldn’t.”
Her grandfather’s home is only about a hundred feet away from the U.S.-Mexico border. At first, Border Patrol agents waited to see if her grandfather could lift the girl over the fence, but when it became clear he couldn’t they called Washington, D.C. to try a different approach.
“One of the border [agents] said, ‘Well, there’s a fence down there…that we open it on big, big emergencies,’” said the teen’s grandmother, Monica Rubio. “So he says, ‘Let me get the OK,’ so he calls.”
Authorization came and Rubio was carried into the United States. Initial screening gave her a clean bill of health, but she is currently undergoing testing.
The Border Patrol’s primary job is enforcing US immigration laws, but since October they have assisted in 17 rescues.