Lost puppy caught on camera fleeing to San Diego through open border fence with 10 migrants returns to Mexican city of Tijuana
- Oso, a stray dog from the Mexican border city of Tijuana, was returned to his caretakers by U.S. Border Patrol on Wednesday.
- The six-month-old dog was seen running after migrants crossing an open area of the border where workers were making repairs on Tuesday
- Oso was abandoned shortly after his birth, according to a merchant, but the locals care for him and ensure he is well fed
A lost puppy’s American dream is over after his caretakers in the Mexican border town asked U.S. Border Patrol agents for help in bringing him back.
Known to locals in Tijuana as “Oso,” the dog made headlines Tuesday when he ran with 10 migrants through the U.S.-Mexico border where construction workers were replacing part of the steel barrier.
The video showed seven migrants fleeing through a temporary fence that had fallen, before an eighth migrant joined them with Oso following behind.
Moments later, two other migrants could be seen following the group before they all surrendered to border agents at Imperial Beach in San Diego County.
“Oso,” a stray dog beloved by locals in Mexico, returned to the border city of Tijuana on Wednesday, a day after he was seen in a viral video walking with 10 migrants through an open area of the U.S. border and Mexico moved. U.S. Border Patrol agents turned him over to one of the merchants in Tijuana, who has cared for him since he was left there six months ago.
Oso (circled) runs after migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border before turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents in San Diego County on Tuesday
A border trader, who is among many locals caring for the abandoned dog, later approached officers near the border building and asked if they could help him find Oso.
Border guards located Oso and ‘deported’ him on Wednesday.
Paola, a woman who runs her own business on Tijuana Beach, told TV Azteca Baja California that the dog is about six months old and was abandoned on the beach shortly after its birth.
Oso has decent culinary taste and does not like dog croquettes, but prefers to eat shrimp.
She recalled that he was doing well until he noticed the migrants rushing through the open border area in hopes of receiving asylum from the U.S. government.
“A bunch of people passed by and he went after them all,” Paola said.
Oso walks behind one of his handlers from the Mexican border city of Tijuana after U.S. Border Patrol agents extradited him Wednesday, a day after he was seen on video running with migrants through an area where construction workers were repairing a steel barrier
A viral TikTok video posted Monday showed at least 10 migrants and a dog running through an open section of a steel border barrier under construction at the Tijuana-San Diego border.
Oso’s quick return to Tijuana sparked jokes on social media.
“Oh poor Oso, the American dream was short-lived,” one user wrote on X.
Another user on the network joked that Oso is “just a coyote (smuggler) who just got them through.”
Mexican border towns have been swamped by an influx of migrants in recent months, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released on September 22 showing that agents reported 2,206,039 encounters involving illegal entry between October 2022 and September 2023.
By comparison, 2,378,944 encounters were reported in fiscal year 2022, up from 1,734,686 in the previous fiscal year and just 458,088 in all of 2021.
Mexico’s Refugee Assistance Commission said last week it expects to receive 150,000 asylum applications this year, surpassing the record 129,000 it encountered in 2021.
Through August, they had already received 100,000 — 25 percent more than the same period in 2021. More than half of the requests were received by the agency at Mexico’s shared border with Guatemala.