US authorities closed the world’s busiest land border crossing for several hours on Tuesday after suspected Mexican human traffickers tried to enter with illegal immigrants, US officials said.
US agents fired at three vans packed with about 70 illegal immigrants that tried to evade heavy security and cross into the US, the officials said.
“The port is closed and will remain closed for several hours,” US Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman Angelica De Cima said after the incident at the congested San Ysidro crossing between the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego.
WOUNDED
Three people in the vans and a motorist were wounded, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officials said the suspected migrants did not open fire on US agents as initial reports had suggested.
“Three vans attempted to run the port through one of the northbound vehicle lanes to avoid inspection,” De Cima said, adding that two agents fired their weapons.
“I cannot confirm that fire was returned,” she said.
Mack said the border crossing partially reopened on Tuesday evening. A Mexican border hotline for motorists said seven lanes at the crossing were open.
BIG RISKS
Mexico’s violent drug gangs are increasingly moving into the lucrative people-smuggling business, but tight US border security is forcing them to take bigger risks to get narcotics and illegal immigrants into the US.
The brazen attempt was unprecedented at the heavily guarded crossing, where helicopters circle overhead and armed agents with dogs keep watch at a series of staggered checkpoints.
All the illegal immigrants were arrested and taken into custody. The crossing, a major smuggling corridor for narcotics and illegal immigrants, was shut while police conducted the investigation.
Some 90 million people a year use the California-Mexico land border crossings, with almost half the traffic going through San Ysidro.
ANGRY DRIVERS
Angry drivers blared car horns as a huge traffic jam built up on the Mexican side while US agents signaled them to turn around.
“I’ve never known the entire crossing to be closed before. We just didn’t believe the agents when they told us to turn around,” said a Mexican student who gave his name as Juan Carlos and who crosses the border almost daily.
US officials are directing motorists to California’s other six border crossings, which also handle trucks.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in