Trump defends use of tear gas as asylum seekers’ hopes fade
Tensions have reached breaking point in the Mexican border city of Tijuana after a school was closed next to a sports complex where more than 5,000 Central American migrants have been camped out for two weeks.
The move by the parents’ association of the elementary school came after US border agents fired tear gas into Mexico to turn back a group of migrants who had breached the border over the weekend. The incident prompted Mexican authorities to step up the police presence around the shelter.
Citing fears for their children’s safety, the parents bought their own lock and chain and closed the school’s gates. A sign on the gate said the school would remain closed until further notice.
Parent Carmen Rodriguez said there had been calls for authorities to do something since the migrants arrived, adding her nine-year-old daughter would not be returning to classes until they were gone.
Officials meanwhile reported more interest from migrants wanting to start the process of staying in Mexico. A job fair matching migrants with openings in Baja California saw a growing number of inquiries.
“What happened yesterday harms all of us,” Oscar Leonel Mina, a 22-year-old father from San Salvador in El Salvador, said about Sunday’s border clash.
The events made Mr Mina rethink his family’s plan of making it to the US. He said he had heard people talk of Rosarito, a beach town popular with US tourists about a 40-minute drive south of Tijuana.
There “you can earn money and live well” if you are willing to work, he said. He set a goal of trying to move his family out of the shelter in another week.
Mexican security forces stepped up their presence at the complex where thousands from the migrant caravan have been sheltered, apparently seeking to avoid a repeat of Sunday’s ugly scenes.
Tijuana public safety secretary Marco Antonio Sotomayor Amezcua said Mexican police would be prudent in their use of force, but “we have to guard at all cost that the border posts are not closed again”.
US president Donald Trump strongly defended the use of tear gas to repel a crowd of migrants that included angry rock-throwers but also barefoot, crying children.
Critics denounced the border agents’ action as overkill, but Mr Trump kept to a hard line.
“They were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas,” Mr Trump said. “Here’s the bottom line – nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally.” Mr Trump later seemed to acknowledge that children were affected.