Unarmed people still have legs and arms, that can be turned into force.
@BHarwana
Enjoy. Mexico not USA doing this. These migrants and refugees are criminals. Human rights don't apply to them.
Mexico to deport 500 migrants who tried 'violently' to breach US border
- US shuts San Diego-Tijuana crossing
- Migrants chant: ‘We are not criminals!’ as US officers fire teargas
Guardian staff and agencies
Mon 26 Nov 2018 00.08 GMTFirst published on Sun 25 Nov 2018 20.49 GMT
Shares
29,864
Play Video
0:34
US officers fire tear gas at migrant caravan – video
Mexico plans to deport about 500 migrants who it said tried on Sunday to “violently” and “illegally” cross the border into the US, the Mexican interior ministry has said in a statement.
It added that Mexican authorities had contained the protest at the crossing between Tijuana and San Diego and that, despite heightened tensions there, Mexico would not send military forces to control 7,417 migrants from a caravan who have gathered at the border.
Amid heated rhetoric from Donald Trump and confusion over a reported deal to keep asylum seekers in Mexico, all traffic was halted on Sunday at the busy border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana. US Customs and Border Protection said
on Twitter traffic in both directions was suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry.
The Associated Press reported that migrants approaching the border were enveloped with teargas after a few tried to breach the fence separating the two countries. US agents shot the gas, according to an AP reporter on the scene. Children were screaming and coughing in the mayhem.
Honduran migrant Ana Zúñiga, 23, told the AP she saw migrants open a small hole in concertina wire at a gap on the Mexican side of a levee, at which point US agents fired teargas at them.
“We ran but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more,” she said, holding her three-year-old daughter, Valery.
Mexico’s Milenio TV showed images of migrants trying to jump the fence. A few yards away on the US side, shoppers streamed in and out of a mall.
Sign up for the new US morning briefing
More than 5,000 migrants have been camped in and around a sports complex in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in caravans. Many hope to apply for asylum in the US but agents at the San Ysidro entry point have been processing fewer than 100 asylum petitions a day.
On Saturday the Washington Post
reported that the Trump administration had reached a deal with the incoming Mexican government, which takes office on 1 December, to hold asylum seekers south of the border. The incoming interior minister then said no deal had been reached.
On Sunday several hundred migrants, mostly men, pushed past a blockade of Mexican police near the crossing. The migrants carried hand-painted American and Honduran flags and chanted: “We are not criminals! We are international workers!”
US border patrol helicopters flew low overhead.
Some of the migrants called on each other to remain peaceful. They appeared to easily pass through the police blockade without using violence. A second line of police carrying plastic riot shields stood guard outside a Mexican customs and immigration plaza. That line of police installed tall steel panels on the Mexican side of the border, completely blocking incoming traffic lanes.
Trump used the caravans as an election issue in this month’s midterms, sending US military to the border and
authorising troops to use lethal force.
Earlier on Sunday the president
tweeted: “Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in US. No longer).”
Irineo Mujica, who has accompanied the migrants for weeks as part of the aid group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said the aim of the march towards the border was to make the migrants’ plight more visible to the governments of Mexico and the US.
“We can’t have all these people here,” Mujica told the Associated Press.
On Friday, Tijuana’s mayor, Juan Manuel Gastlum,
declared a humanitarian crisis in his city of 1.6 million, which he said was struggling to accommodate the crush of migrants.
We have some news …
… three years ago, we knew we had to try to make The Guardian sustainable by deepening our relationship with our readers. The revenues from our newspaper had diminished and the technologies that connected us with a global audience had moved advertising money away from news organisations. We knew we needed to find a way to keep our journalism open and accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live or what they can afford.
And so, we have an update for you on some good news. Thanks to all the readers who have supported our independent, investigative journalism through contributions, membership or subscriptions, we are starting to overcome the urgent financial situation we were faced with. Today we have been supported by more than a million readers around the world. Our future is starting to look brighter. But we have to maintain and build on that level of support for every year to come, which means we still need to ask for your help.
Ongoing financial support from our readers means we can continue pursuing difficult stories in the challenging times we are living through, when factual reporting has never been more critical. The Guardian is editorially independent – our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. This is important because it enables us to challenge the powerful and hold them to account. With your support, we can continue bringing The Guardian’s independent journalism to the world.