That Video of Migrants Instantly Climbing 30-Foot Border Wall? Here’s Where That’s From

On the heels of President Donald Trump’s claim that his replacement border fence is unclimbable, a video is circulating on social media showing two men scaling such a fence in comically rapid fashion. Where did that video come from?

During a lengthy photo op at a section of replacement border fence in Otay Mesa Wednesday, Trump boasted that the fence could not be climbed, and claimed it had been tested by “champion” mountain climbers, and that this design “was the one that was hardest to climb.”

But a video circulating on social media shows two young men making comically quick work of a 30-foot border wall, all while carrying massive backpacks.

That video, however, is actually from 2016, although it does show a section of border fence that is the same height as Trump’s wall, and features a similar slatted design. The Associated Press reported on the video’s provenance at the time:

Journalist Carolina Rocha of Azteca Noticias in Mexico City was in Nogales, Arizona, reporting on the U.S. Border Patrol’s use of force March 16 when she spotted two young men in black t-shirts and jeans climbing down the fence in daylight. Footage shows them carrying large backpacks that were likely holding drugs, walking while hunched over and then hiding behind some bushes and talking on what appears to be a phone before realizing the camera was recording.

“Don’t record,” one of the men says.

But Rocha was already rolling and not willing to stop. She told the men she was just doing her job. The cameras rolled for about three minutes before the men climbed back up the fence and returned to Mexico.

In fact, Trump even referenced this video during his remarks to reporters Wednesday. He claimed that the key difference between his fence and the one in the viral video is a panel at the top.

“we’ve all seen the pictures of young people climbing walls with drugs on their back, a lot of drugs, I mean they’re unbelievable climbers,” Trump said, then added “This wall can’t be climbed. This is very very hard, and what the panel does at the top, as I said, it’s structural but it’s also very hard to get by that panel. Plus it’s designed to absorb heat, so it’s extremely hot. The wall is, you won’t be able to touch it, you can fry an egg on that wall.”

Undercutting Trump’s claim that “you won’t be able to touch” the wall is the fact that at the end of the photo op, Trump and a procession of ungloved workers signed the wall, and apparently suffered no burns.

While the fence in this viral video is not the same one Trump is promoting, it’s worth noting that Trump’s own border chief contradicted his claim that the wall “can’t be climbed.”

Earlier in the presentation, Customs and Border Patrol Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan remarked that the enhanced fence would give Border Patrol agents “a few more seconds, a few more minutes to respond.”

Watch the viral video above, via Telemundo.

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