A Mexican man took his own life just 30 minutes after he was deported from the US for the third time.
Guadalupe Olivas Valencia was reportedly screaming that he did not want to return to Central America and that he was going to kill himself before he jumped from the border bridge between San Diego and Tijuana.
The 45-year-old was found lying on the floor yards away from El Chaparral border crossing next to a plastic bag of his belongings.
Valencia was taken to hospital and died from his injuries soon after, the BBC reports
#Policiaca Se suicida tras ser deportado de #EEUU luego de cruzar la frontera #Tijuana —> https://t.co/tEKkkJf6VZ pic.twitter.com/PfiUkiK535
— El Mexicano (@ElMexicanOnline) February 21, 2017
A friend of Valencia told AFP he had seemed ‘anxious after being expelled to a city where ‘he knew nobody’.
The divorced father of two was from Los Mochis in Sinaloa – a notoriously dangerous part of the region which reported 1,938 homicides last month alone.
His death on Tuesday came on the same day that Donald Trump announced tighter regulations on immigration meaning that almost anyone in America illegally could be deported, regardless of whether they have committed a crime.
The US released two memos aimed at speeding up the deportation of undocumented migrants. One includes instructions to enforce current rules that allow authorities to send some people caught illegally at the border back to Mexico, regardless of where they are from.
The homicide rates, which have increased by a third from last year, have been on the up in Sinaloa after the arrest of infamous drug kingpin El Chapo in January 2016.
Valencia’s family have paid tribute to him on his Facebook page, saying:
God has you in his holy glory today,’ one relative wrote. ‘You left this world, we know that we’ll no longer see you physically but in my mind and my heart you will always be present. I know that you’re resting in peace. RIP. Condolences for the whole Olivas Valencia family.