Border crossing closed after migrants try entering U.S.

Nov. 25, 2018 / 11:39 PM GMT

By Annie Rose Ramos and Tim Stelloh

TIJUANA, Mexico — American authorities used tear gas on hundreds of migrants who tried to enter the United States illegally Sunday, prompting officials to shut down operations at the port of entry between this city and San Diego.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection suspended all vehicles and pedestrians from passing through the San Ysidro Port of Entry at 11:30 a.m. after the migrants tried to cross east and west of the inspection station. the agency said in a statement.

Some migrants said they tried crossing only after being denied access to the port of entry where they could claim asylum. The San Ysidro crossing was opened to pedestrians shortly before 4 p.m. local time, the agency said.

Customs and Border Protection tweeted that it used tear gas after several migrants threw projectiles at border agents, striking them.

“The situation is evolving and a statement is forthcoming,” the agency said.

The shutdown came after hundreds of migrants — many whom are fleeing violence in Central America — assembled Sunday morning on the Mexican side of the border. American military helicopters buzzed overhead as hundreds of Mexican federal police officers blocked the migrants from entering San Ysidro.

The migrants were part of a larger group of roughly 6,000 who’d crammed into several shelters in Tijuana — a situation the city’s mayor has called a “humanitarian crisis.”

In an interview Sunday, one of the migrants, Jorge Montoya, 43, described thousands of people staying in a rundown sports stadium with overflowing toilets. He and others called the conditions intolerable — but when Mexican authorities refused to grant them access to the port of entry, hundreds slogged across the sewage-laden Tijuana River in search of access to the United States.

Among the throng were elderly people in wheelchairs and children with strollers. The group formed a human chain along the river’s steep embankments.

“We’re not running because we’re criminals,” Montoya said in an interview. “We’re running from the crime in our country.”

On the other side of the river, dozens of migrants broke through a wooden fence and climbed atop a freight train. Clutching Honduran and Guatemalan flags, they could see the United States from their perch — but there still appeared to be no way for them to cross.

The attempted crossing came after Trump administration officials and members of Mexico’s incoming government appeared to be at odds over a deal that could prevent asylum seekers from entering the United States.

Under the current system, asylum seekers can remain in the U.S. while their cases are processed in American courts. But the Trump administration wants them to remain in Mexico instead.

Two Trump administration officials told NBC News that the plan was a few weeks away from going into effect, though Jesus Ramirez Cuevas, a spokesman for recently elected Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said no such agreement had been reached.

Annie Rose Ramos reported from Tijuana, Mexico. Tim Stelloh reported from Alameda, California.