Border crossing closed, ‘tear gas’ fired
The Mexican border was closed yesterday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry after a group of migrants in Tijuana stormed the area, prompting the US Border Patrol to fire what appeared to be tear gas at the group.
The incident was a serious escalation in the tensions in Tijuana as thousands of migrants from Central America amassed there with hopes for entering the United States. President Donald Trump has said he would seal off the Mexican border in recent days and pushed to keep any migrants in Mexico as they await the immigration process.
Hundreds of Central American migrants who gathered in Tijuana pushed past a blockade of Mexican police standing guard and rushed toward the border.
The migrants carried hand-painted American and Honduran flags and chanted: ‘‘We are not criminals! We are international workers!’’ Late in the morning, migrants tried to run around Mexican federal police, leaving one officer with a cut on his lip.
At one point before noon, Border Patrol authorities fired what appeared to be tear gas at a group of people trying to make their way through a fence. Some women ran under a train, clutching crying children. Photos from the scene showed children in the area where the tear gas landed.
Shortly after noon, the skirmishes appeared to be calming down. A woman used a bullhorn to speak through the fence to US Border Patrol agents, trying to persuade them to let in migrants.
‘‘We don’t want war, we don’t want killing,’’ she said across the line.
In response, Mexican federal police in riot gear pushed people away from the fence.
None of the migrants managed to cross the border into the US.
More than 4700 Central Americans have been living crammed together in a Tijuana sports complex.
State authorities say by the time it is over, as many as 9000 Central Americans will have arrived in Tijuana hoping to cross the border.
Many of them are from Honduras, a country beset by violence and poverty, and came with the intention of seeking asylum in the United States.
‘‘It is a despicable act on the part of the Trump Administration and CBP officials to attack defenseless women and children firing tear gas, a chemical agent, at them,’’ Angelica Salas, executive director for the immigrant rights organisation Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said.
– LA Times