US President Donald Trump on Monday defended the US’ use of tear gas at the Mexican border to repel a crowd of migrants that included angry rock-throwers, but also barefoot, crying children.
Critics denounced the border agents’ action as overkill, but Trump kept to a hard line.
“They were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas,” Trump said of Sunday’s encounter. “Here’s the bottom line: Nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally.”
Photo: Reuters
At a roundtable in Mississippi later on Monday, Trump seemed to acknowledge that children were affected, asking: “Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it’s going to be formed and they were running up with a child?”
He said it was “a very minor form of the tear gas itself” that he assured was “very safe.”
Without offering evidence, he also claimed that some of the women are not really parents, but are instead “grabbers” who steal children so they have a better chance of being granted asylum in the US.
He also tweeted that the caravan at the border included “stone cold criminals.”
Mario Figueroa, Tijuana’s social services department director who is overseeing operations at the sports complex where most of the migrants in the caravan are staying, said that of the 4,938 staying there as of Friday, 933 were women, 889 were children and 3,105 were men, which includes fathers traveling with families along with single men.
The US military said that about 300 troops who had been deployed in south Texas and Arizona as part of a border security mission have been moved to California for similar work.
The military’s role is limited largely to erecting barriers along the border and providing transportation and logistical support to US Customs and Border Protection.
Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights groups blasted the border agents’ Sunday tactics.
“These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas,” California governor-elect Gavin Newsom tweeted. “Women and children who left their lives behind — seeking peace and asylum — were met with violence and fear. That’s not my America.”
US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that the US administration’s concerns about the caravan “were borne out and on fully display” on Sunday.
McAleenan said that hundreds — perhaps more than 1,000 — people attempted to rush vehicle lanes at the San Ysidro crossing. Mexican authorities estimated the crowd at 500.
McAleenan said four agents were struck with rocks, but were not injured because they were wearing protective gear.
US Border Protection agents launched pepper spray balls in addition to tear gas in what officials said were on-the-spot decisions made by agents.
US troops deployed to the border on Trump’s orders were not involved in the operation.
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