TIJUANA, Mexico -- Hundreds of migrants approaching the U.S. border from Mexico were enveloped with tear gas Sunday after several tried to make it past fencing and wire separating the two countries.
Earlier in the morning, a group of Central Americans staged a peaceful march to appeal for the U.S. to speed up the asylum claims process, but their demonstration devolved as they neared the crossing with the U.S. and some saw an opportunity to breach the border.
U.S. agents shot several rounds of gas, according to an Associated Press reporter on the scene, after migrants attempted to penetrate several points along the border. Migrants sought to squeeze through gaps in wire, climb over fences and peel back metal sheeting to enter.
Children screamed and coughed in the mayhem of the tear gas. Fumes were carried by the wind toward people who were hundreds of feet away, not attempting to enter the U.S.
Honduran Ana Zuniga, 23, said she saw other 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 said while cradling her 3-year-old daughter Valery in her arms.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection 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 had been suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry at both the East and West facilities. All northbound and southbound traffic was halted.
A Customs and Border Protection statement said the port of entry was closed about 11:30 a.m. and remained that way at 2 p.m. local time.
The statement said that some people "attempted to enter the U.S. both directly east and west of the border crossing."
"These attempts to illegally enter the U.S., and the response to them continue. Some attempted to illegally enter the U.S. through both the northbound and southbound vehicles lanes at the port of entry itself. Those persons were stopped and turned back to Mexico."
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to close border crossings to prevent a migrant caravan from entering the United States. While members of the caravan have been in Tijuana for several days, this is the first time that a significant group has massed at the border fence.
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.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Trump had reiterated threats to close the southern border -- threats that have alarmed many in Mexico, since cross-border trade is a mainstay of the Mexican economy.
In his Twitter post, Trump also said migrants would not be allowed into the United States "until their claims are individually approved in court."
Others, he said, would "stay in Mexico," he wrote without elaboration.
The Mexican Interior Ministry has said it would immediately deport Central American migrants who tried to "violently" breach the border with the U.S. and that it would reinforce the border.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Sunday that U.S. authorities will continue to have a "robust" presence along the Southwest border and that they will prosecute anyone who damages federal property or violates U.S. sovereignty.
BLOCKADE BREACHED
Earlier Sunday, the group of several hundred 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 carried hand-painted American and Honduran flags while chanting: "We are not criminals! We are international workers!"
Migrants were asked by police to turn back toward Mexico.
Maria Lousia Caceres, 42, and her son followed people who were running toward the fence.
"We thought it was a peaceful march today, but then I saw everyone running and I thought, 'This is it, God will touch Trump's heart,'" she said.
Caceres, a tortilla vendor from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, said she had fled her hometown and joined the migrant caravan after gang members killed two of her brothers and burned down her house. She said she wants asylum in the United States but really just "wants life to get better now."
Standing by the fence, when she realized there was no way across the border, she said she did not know what would happen next. "Now we wait," she added.
Elizabeth Chirinos, 37, said she had followed others who were running toward the border because she felt desperate.
"The U.S. isn't letting us through and I can't live in those conditions in the shelter," she said. "I want to go to the U.S. and not stay in Mexico because there are more opportunities."
Standing back from the group by the fence, Alex Almendares, 22, of Colon, Honduras, said that having migrants protesting at the border would not help their cause.
"It just gets people mad at us, and I want asylum," he said.
Shortly after noon, the skirmishes appeared to be calming down. A woman used a bullhorn to speak through the fence to U.S. agents, trying to persuade them to let in migrants.
"We don't want war, we don't want killing," she said across the line.
Around 5,000 migrants have been camped in and around a sports complex in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks via caravan. Many hope to apply for asylum in the U.S., but agents at the San Ysidro entry point are processing fewer than 100 asylum petitions a day.
Many of the migrants are from Honduras, a country beset by violence and poverty.
"It is a despicable act on the part of the Trump Administration and CBP officials to attack defenseless women and children firing tear gas, a chemical agent, at them," Angelica Salas, executive director for the immigrant-rights organization Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said in a statement. "These are human beings who are reaching a point of desperation because their asylum claims are being processed at a snail's pace or not at all."
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 said.
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.
Mexico's Interior Ministry said Sunday that the country has sent 11,000 Central Americans back to their countries of origin since Oct. 19. It said that 1,906 of them were members of the recent caravans.
Information for this article was contributed by Christopher Sherman, Amy Guthrie and other staff members of The Associated Press; by Wendy Fry, Sonali Kohli, Patrick McDonnell, Ruben Vives and Cecilia Sanchez of the Los Angeles Times; and by Sarah Kinosian and Joshua Partlow of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/26/2018