US shuts border, fires gas
United States authorities shut the country’s busiest border crossing and fired tear gas into Mexico to repel Central American migrants approaching the border after President Donald Trump vowed the asylum-seekers would not easily enter the country.
Traffic in both directions was suspended for several hours at the San Ysidro port of entry between San Diego and Tijuana, disrupting trade at the most heavilytrafficked land border in the Western Hemisphere.
Pedestrian crossings and vehicle traffic later resumed.
Tensions on the border had been rising in recent days, with thousands of Central American migrants camped out at a sports complex in Tijuana.
On Sunday, Mexican police broke up the latest daily protest, triggering a rush towards the US border.
US Customs and Border Protection officers stopped the migrants with a volley of canisters emitting large clouds of gas.
The mostly Honduran migrants are fleeing poverty and violence and have said they will wait in Tijuana until they can request asylum in the US. Closed: