'We will close the border permanently if need be': Trump threatens
President Trump threatened to permanently close the U.S. border with Mexico on Monday, saying he'll take the drastic action if members of a swelling migrant caravan are not deported back to their Central American homelands.
U.S. Border Patrol fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at a group of migrants on Sunday, including families with young children, as hundreds tried to storm the border.
San Diego Sector Border Control chief patrol agent Rodney Scott said Monday morning on CNN that when the migrants approached border fences, they 'immediately started throwing rocks and debris at our agents, taunting our agents.
'And once our agents were assaulted and the numbers started growing – you know we had two or three agents at a time facing hundreds of people at a time – they deployed tear gas to protect themselves and protect the border.
Carla Provost, the chief of U.S. Border Patrol, told the Fox news Channel that 'our agents were being assaulted.
A large group approached the area and they were throwing rocks and bottles at my men and women, putting them in harm's way as well as other members of the caravan.'.
The confrontation produced chaos and new dangers that prompted U.S. officials to close the crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, stopping everyone in their tracks – including thousands travelling legally between the U.S.
The border reopened Monday morning, but Trump tweeted a stern warning to Mexico: Deport the migrants, a horde that includes 'stone cold criminals,' or see the economically critical crossing sealed permanently.
He called for Congress to fund his border wall with Mexico at a time when congressional Democrats are counting down the final weeks before they take over the House of Representatives.
'Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries.
Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A.,' Trump tweeted. 'We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!'.
The president's ultimatum played on TV screens worldwide Monday morning, alongside images of children screaming and coughing in Sunday's mayhem at the San Ysidro Port of Entry as Border Patrol officers tried to push the surging mass of people back.
The crowd control tactics began when migrants tried to cut a hole in razor wire on the Mexican side of the fence.
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, told CNN on Monday that Border Patrol was guilty of an 'overuse of force.
'There are women and children out there. Using tear gas in this situation does not seem justified,' he said.
But Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she would not put up with the 'lawlessness' and threatened harsh punishments for 'anyone who destroys federal property, endangers our frontline operators, or violates our sovereignty.
Nielsen confirmed that border personnel were 'struck by projectiles thrown by caravan members. ' She condemned those responsible for their 'dangerous' actions that were 'not consistent with peacefully seeking asylum.
Mexico also vowed to deport about 500 migrants who tried to 'violently' and 'illegally' cross the U.S. border on Sunday, according to the Mexican Interior Ministry.
More than 5,000 of them, mostly asylum seekers, have been camped in and around a sports complex in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks.
Agents at the San Ysidro entry point are processing fewer than 100 asylum petitions a day. But Scott, the Border Patrol's chief agent in San Diego, said Monday legitimate asylum seekers are few and far between.
'What I saw on the border yesterday was not people walking up to Border Patrol agents and asking to claim asylum,' he said.
'Matter of fact, one of the groups I watched, one of the groups that several of them were arrested, they passed 10 or 15 marked Border Patrol units.
numerous uniformed personnel, as they were chanting, waving a Honduran flag, and throwing rocks at the agents.'. 'If they were truly asylum seekers, they would have just walked up with their hands up and surrendered. And that did not take place.'.
Despite heightened tensions, Mexico said it would not send military forces to control more than 7,000 migrants from a caravan currently amassed at the U.
Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, said she saw migrants open a small hole in concertina wire at a gap on the Mexican side of a levee, at which point U.S. agents fired tear gas at them.
'We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more,' she told the AP while cradling her three-year-old daughter Valery in her arms.
Mexico pledged to shore up security near its border with the United States and local authorities said that 39 migrants were arrested after a peaceful march devolved into chaos.
Mexico's Milenio TV also showed images of several migrants at the border trying to jump over the fence. Yards away on the U.S. side, shoppers streamed in and out of an outlet mall.
U.S. Border Patrol helicopters flew overhead, while U.S. agents held vigil on foot beyond the wire fence in California.
The Border Patrol office in San Diego said via Twitter that pedestrian crossings have been suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry at both the East and West facilities. All northbound and southbound traffic was halted.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer tweeted on Sunday: 'It is critical that U.S. and Mexican federal leaders work together to safely resolve the migrant crisis. 'Our way of life relies on a safe, secure and functioning border.
'From travel to shipping to daily commutes between San Diego and Tijuana, it is essential to our community. Earlier Sunday, several hundred Central American migrants pushed past a blockade of Mexican police who were standing guard near the international border crossing.
They appeared to easily pass through without using violence, and some of the migrants called on each other to remain peaceful.
They convened the demonstration to try to pressure the U.S. to hear their asylum claims and carried hand-painted American and Honduran flags while chanting: 'We are not criminals! We are international workers!'.
A second line of Mexican police carrying plastic riot shields stood guard outside a Mexican customs and immigration plaza. That line of police had installed tall steel panels behind them outside the Chaparral crossing on the Mexican side of the border.
Migrants were asked by police to turn back toward Mexico. Irineo Mujica, who has accompanied the migrants for weeks as part of the aid group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said the aim of Sunday's march toward the U.S.
border was to make the migrants' plight more visible to the governments of Mexico and the U.S. 'We can't have all these people here,' Mujica told The Associated Press.
Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum on Friday declared a humanitarian crisis in his border city of 1. 6 million, which he says is struggling to accommodate the crush of migrants.
U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday to express his displeasure with the caravans in Mexico.
'Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S.
No longer),' he wrote. Mexico's Interior Ministry said Sunday the country has sent 11,000 Central Americans back to their countries of origin since Oct. It said that 1,906 of them were members of the recent caravans.
Mexico is on track to send a total of around 100,000 Central Americans back home by the end of this year.
Earlier on Sunday, Nielsen tweetedSunday: 'This AM, @CBP was forced to close the #SanYsidro POE to ensure public safety in response to a large # of migrants seeking to illegally enter the U.
'They attempted to breach legacy fence infrastructure along the border & sought to harm CBP personnel by throwing projectiles @ them. '@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.'.
In a later tweet, she condemned members of the caravan throwing objects at border personnel. She wrote: 'Today CBP (Customs and Border Protection) personnel were struck by projectiles thrown by caravan members.
'Such actions are dangerous & not consistent w peacefully seeking asylum. The perpetrators will be prosecuted. I will continue to aggressively support DHS personnel as they work to safely secure our border.'.
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