US border breach
Guards deploy tear gas as migrants attempt to scale wall
UNITED States border agents fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants protesting near the border yesterday, after some tried to get through fencing and wire.
US authorities closed border crossings from the city of Tijuana, where thousands are waiting to apply for asylum.
Protesters had earlier begun a peaceful march to appeal for the US to expedite processing of the asylum claims of central American migrants.
Migrants pushed past police officers to walk across the Tijuana River. More police carrying plastic riot shields were on the other side, but migrants walked along the river to an area where only an earthen levee and concertina wire separated them from US Border Patrol agents.
Some saw an opportunity to breach the crossing. US agents fired several rounds of tear gas after some migrants tried to breach several points along the border.
Honduran Ana Zuniga, 23, said she saw migrants opening a small hole in concertina wire, at which point US agents fired tear gas at them.
Children screamed and coughed. Fumes were carried by the wind toward people hundreds of metres away.
“We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more,” Ms Zuniga said, cradling her daughter Valery, 3.
Mexico City’s Interior Ministry said about 500 migrants had tried to “violently” enter the US, and it would immediately deport those people and reinforce security.
It said that since October 19 it had sent 11,000 central Americans back to their countries of origin.
US helicopters flew overhead, while US agents kept a vigil on foot beyond the wire fence in California. Pedestrian crossings at the San Ysidro port of entry were suspended.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the US would continue to have a “robust” presence and would prosecute anyone who damaged property or violated US sovereignty.
US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to express his displeasure.
“Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in US. No longer),” he wrote.