U.S. re-opens California border crossing with Mexico
U.S. authorities have re-opened the San Ysidro port of entry into Mexico after briefly closing it following an attempt by hundreds of migrants to breach a fence, the Customs and Border Protection agency said Sunday.
It announced the crossing was re-opened in a series of tweets, saying that first pedestrian access was resumed, followed by vehicle traffic.
U.S. officials closed the border crossing in southern California on Sunday after many migrants, part of the "caravan" condemned by U.S. President Donald Trump, tried to breach a fence from the Mexican city of Tijuana, authorities announced earlier.
The dramatic shutdown took place only three days after Trump threatened to close the "whole border" with Mexico if "it gets to a level where we're going to lose control or people are going to start getting hurt."
Border officials in San Diego, California, said on Twitter that they had temporarily closed the San Ysidro crossing point – one of the busiest between the two countries – to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete on Sunday accused some of the migrants of attempting the Tijuana crossing in a "violent way."
"We are going to act and proceed to their deportation," he told the Milenio television network," said Navarrete, adding that "Far from helping the caravan, they are hurting it."
Video clips posted Sunday on Twitter showed a large number of migrants dashing across a shallow concrete waterway toward the border. Several thousand migrants, mostly from Central America, have been gathering in Tijuana in hopes of entering the U.S.
Tear gas
At least 500 of them, including women and children, had been taking part in a peaceful demonstration in Tijuana before dashing toward the border in an attempt to clamber over a first metal barrier there.
Several hundred made it over the first barrier and were trying to cross a second – topped with spikes – when U.S. border officers began firing tear gas at them even as U.S. army helicopters flew low overhead, according to an AFP journalist on the scene.
The migrants tried to protect themselves – covering their faces, with mothers holding their children close. There were cries of pain, desperation, and frustration as the crowd swirled over the borderline and back.
Some migrants shouted that they only wanted to make their way to a better life.
But amid the stinging gas, several migrants turned back.
Trump has repeatedly warned that the large group of migrants moving through Mexico toward the U.S. included criminals and possibly terrorists while providing no evidence to support that.
A reported asylum deal
Approximately 5,000 migrants reached Tijuana over the past week, after an exhausting 5,000-kilometer trip covered in just over a month. Many were fleeing violence and poverty in Honduras in hopes of finding asylum in the U.S.
To enter the U.S. legally, migrants must formally apply for asylum, but the wait for those requests to be processed can last up to a year.
Trump signed a proclamation earlier this month to prevent anyone filing asylum claims except at legal ports of entry, but a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the order, pointing to "irreconcilable conflicts" with immigration law.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the Trump administration had gained the support of Mexico's incoming government for a plan to require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their applications to be processed.
(Cover: Migrants from Central America en route to the U.S. in front of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico in Tijuana, Mexico, November 25, 2018.
