AP Reporter Recounts Migrants Being Tear-Gassed
230 views · Published 3 December 2018 · 3:25 · Indexed 30 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(27 Nov 2018) 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. American authorities shut down the nation's busiest border crossing from Tijuana where thousands are waiting to apply for asylum. The situation devolved after the group began a peaceful march to appeal for the U.S. to speed processing of asylum claims for Central American migrants marooned in Tijuana. Mexican police had kept them from walking over a bridge leading to the Mexican port of entry, but the migrants pushed past officers to walk across the Tijuana River below the bridge. More police carrying plastic riot shields were on the other side, but migrants walked along the river to an area where only an earthen levee and concertina wire separated them from U.S. Border Patrol agents. Some saw an opportunity to breach the crossing. An Associated Press reporter saw U.S. agents shoot several rounds of tear gas after some migrants attempted to penetrate several points along the border. Mexico's Milenio TV showed images of migrants climbing over fences and peeling back metal sheeting to enter. Children screamed and coughed. Fumes were carried by the wind toward people who were hundreds of feet away. "The gas was blowing with the breeze in the same direction, the only direction that the migrants could run," said Associated Press reporter Chris Sherman, who was at the scene. Throughout the day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopters flew overhead, while U.S. agents held vigil on foot beyond the wire fence in California. The Border Patrol office in San Diego said via Twitter that pedestrian crossings were suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry at both the East and West facilities. All northbound and southbound traffic was halted for several hours. Every day more than 100,000 people enter the U.S. there. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement that U.S. authorities will continue to have a "robust" presence along the Southwest border and that they will prosecute anyone who damages federal property or violates U.S. sovereignty. More than 5,000 migrants have been camped in and around a sports complex in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks via caravan. Many hope to apply for asylum in the U.S., but agents at the San Ysidro entry point are processing fewer than 100 asylum petitions a day. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/c11e9051e5825d173f03a4660fcf1a21
