U.S. agents shot rounds of tear gas at the migrant caravan Sunday as crowds approached the border from Mexico.
Just before 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Border Patrol agents fired tear gas across the San Diego-Tijuana border at the crowd, which includes women and children. Some tried climbing over the wall, others through holes in the fence, while winds pushed the tear gas hundreds of feet back into the group.
“We ran but when you run the smoke smothers you more,” said 23-year-old Ana Zuniga, who was trying to cross the border with her 3-year-old daughter, Valery.
Agents in riot gear stood guard in a blockade in front of the border, hours after the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted non-lethal riot control training to “provide force protection for Customs and Border Protection personnel and help make sure CBP personnel can perform their assigned Federal functions.”
Earlier Sunday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office shut down the border between San Diego and Tijuana to both vehicle and foot traffic as the first group from the migrant caravan reached their target.
“Due to the multiple planned demonstrations on both sides of the border, CBP deployed additional personnel to the San Ysidro port of entry on Sunday,” the agency said. “The additional personnel, which included CBP officers, US Border Patrol agents, and Air and Marine agents, were recently deployed to the San Diego area from various areas around the country in preparation for the potential arrival of the caravan in Tijuana.”
Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, contradicted that statement and said the closure was about the “large (number) of migrants seeking to illegally enter the U.S.,” not the demonstrations, and claimed DHS was ensuring “public safety.”
“They attempted to breach legacy fence infrastructure along the border & sought to harm CBP personnel by throwing projectiles @ them,” she said in a statement. “DHS will not tolerate this type of lawlessness & will not hesitate to shut down POEs for security reasons. We’ll seek to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who destroys federal property, endangers our frontline operators, or violates our sovereignty. #CBP along w other DHS, federal, state & local law enforcement, & the @DeptofDefense, have a robust presence along the SW Border and at our POEs. We remain in close contact with Mexican authorities and are committed to resolving this situation safely in concert with them.”