US, Mexico Pledge Tough Security After Group of Migrants Tried to Cross Border | WPN World People News

Mexican and U.S. authorities are pledging to prosecute those engaging in violence at the border, after a peaceful march in protest of long asylum processing times Sunday ended with a group of migrants breaking off and trying to cross and U.S. border patrol agents responding with tear gas.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Customs and Border Patrol personnel "were struck by projectiles thrown by caravan members," and the agency said that prompted officers to use the tear gas "because of the risk to agents' safety."

Mexico's Interior Ministry said in a statement that authorities were able to contain a group of about 500 people who "in a violent manner" tried to cross the border near the San Ysidro crossing, and that those who are identified as participating would be immediately deported.

The statement said that in accordance with the Mexican government's policy of respecting human rights and the non-criminalization of migration, it would not deploy military forces to control the migrants, but that it would reinforce the border points where people tried to break through.

The Tijuana government said officers arrested 39 people.

About 5,000 people -- most of them from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador -- have gathered in Tijuana after traveling in caravans in search of asylum to escape poverty and violence in their homelands, and many are expressing frustration at long wait times for their cases to be heard. San Ysidro is the busiest U.S. land crossing, and authorities there currently process about 100 asylum seekers per day.

Source: Voice of America