Tensions at the Mexico-US crossing reached boiling point when hundreds of migrants pushed past police and scrambled towards the border. Several hundred migrants, part of a caravan from Honduras, tried to rush past lines of Mexican police at the between Tijuana and California. Border forces opened fired with tear gas, closed the border and scrambled a number of helicopters in response. The migrants carried hand-painted American and Honduran flags as they called for their asylum applications to be processed more quickly, chanting: “We are not criminals! We are international workers!”
A number of the migrants attempted to clamber across a railway siding to cross the border via the mountains.
The unrest came as Mexico is trying to deal with thousands of Central American migrants who have arrived in Tijuana in an attempt to either seek asylum or, in some cases, cross the United States border illegally.
The migrants have spent the past 10 days in squalid conditions in a community sports centre that has been converted into a makeshift shelter.
Many have become increasingly desperate with the realisation of the obstacles still before them in reaching the US.
Tijuana city officials say they have no money to improve conditions at the sports centre, where an estimated 5,000 migrants are sheltering.
Donald Trump had earlier tweeted that Mexico “would be very SMART” to stop the caravans of migrants long before they near the country’s border with the US.
But more than 5,000 migrants have been camping out in Tijuana, a Mexican city that is situated just south of the border.
Mr Trump has stationed more than 6,000 troops along the border and has authorised the use of lethal force if necessary.
He said: “If they have to they are going to use lethal force. I’ve given the OK – I hope they don’t have to.”
Officials have halted all border traffic at the busy crossing between San Diego and Tijuana as the migrants massed at the border and intending to apply for asylum in the United States.
The US Customs and Border Protection agency said traffic in both directions was suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry.