U.S. agents use tear gas as some migrants try to breach U.S.-Mexico border
TIJUANA, Mexico ? U.S. border agents fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants protesting near the border with Mexico on Sunday after some of them attempted to get through the fencing and wire separating the two countries, and American authorities temporarily shut down border crossings from the city where thousands are waiting to apply for asylum.
BBC News correspondent Will Grant reported on CBSN that some protesters crossed a footbridge over a canal in Tijuana and ran toward the border. More than 5,000 migrants have been camped in and around a sports complex in the city after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks via caravan.
After a few migrants tried to breach the fence separating the two countries, they were enveloped with tear gas. U.S. agents shot the gas, according to an Associated Press reporter on the scene. Migrants sought to squeeze through gaps in the wire, climb over fences and peel back metal sheeting to enter.
Border Patrol agents had closed the pedestrian and vehicle crossing at San Diego earlier Sunday, but have since reopened it hours later, according to multiple tweets.
The Mexican government described Sunday's events as "acts of provocation" that were "far from helpful" for the migrants' objectives.
Children screamed and coughed in the mayhem of the tear gas. Fumes were carried by the wind toward people who were hundreds of feet away, not attempting to enter the U.S. Yards away on the U.S. side, shoppers streamed in and out of an outlet mall.
Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, said she saw migrants open a small hole in concertina wire at a gap on the Mexican side of a levee, at which point U.S. agents fired tear gas at them.
"We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more," she told the AP while cradling her 3-year-old daughter Valery in her arms. Mexico's Milenio TV also showed images of several migrants at the border trying to jump over the fence.
Sunday evening, the Mexican Interior Ministry has said it would immediately deport Central American migrants who tried to "violently" breach the border and it would reinforce the border.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said U.S. authorities will continue to have a "robust" presence along the Southwest border and they will prosecute anyone who damages federal property or violates U.S. sovereignty.
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