Migrant mayhem: as 2019 arrives, US fires tear gas across Mexico border to stop ‘violent mob’ trying to breach fence
- The gas was fired early on New Year’s Day at migrants who said they arrived in Tijuana last month with a caravan from Honduras
- Tijuana has become a flashpoint in the debate over US immigration policy
US authorities fired tear gas into Mexico during the first hours of the new year to repel 150 migrants that one official called “a violent mob” from crossing over from Tijuana.
It is the second time since November that border officers have used tear gas during an attempted mass migrant crossing in the San Diego area.
The migrants in the latest case New Year’s Eve were among 1,500 who have remained in Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego, California, after a once-5,000-strong caravan of travellers - which raised the ire of US President Donald Trump - largely gave up and dispersed.
An AFP journalist reported the crowd size at about 100 and observed the group of Central Americans gathering around 8:00pm Monday night in an area called Playas de Tijuana on the Pacific coast, often used by migrants as a departure point for attempts to sneak across the border.
There, the border is marked with fencing and a large vertical plate that juts out into the water. On the other side of it, US border agents were seen mobilising.