Mexico to deport 500 migrants who tried to cross US border
TIJUANA: Mexico will deport around 500 migrants who attempted to storm the US border, according to its interior ministry.
The group were rounded up after trying to cross the border “violently” and “illegally” on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement.
Video footage shows dozens of people running towards the fence that separates the two countries near the city of Tijuana, while photos show clouds of tear gas rising into the air.
The migrants - including many women and children - are in Tijuana after travelling more than 4,000km from Central America.
Mexico’s interior ministry said all those who were identified as having tried to cross would be deported immediately.
It added that, “far from helping their objectives”, the migrants’ actions had violated the legal migration framework and could have led to a “serious incident”.
US President Donald Trump has raised alarms about a caravan of Central American migrants as it approached the United States, with its members planning to apply for asylum on reaching the United States.
Tensions on the border had been rising in recent days, with more than 5,000 migrants camped out at a sports complex in Tijuana and hundreds periodically gathering near the main border crossing.
They say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
However, they now face a long wait to see if their asylum applications will be accepted by the US, with President Donald Trump vowing to keep each migrant on the Mexican side of the border until courts have decided their case. This could take months.
The migrants have said they would wait there until they could request asylum despite growing US measures to tighten the border. -