US Closes Border Crossing Between Tijuana in Mexico and San Diego in California, Uses Tear Gas on Refugees Including Children
The incident took place because of rising frustrations among immigrants due to slow processing of their asylum claims by the US authorities. Thousands of immigrants have arrived at the US-Mexico border in the recent weeks from all over Central America, fleeing violence, poverty or political persecution in their countries.
San Diego, November 26: The US Customs and Border Protection on Sunday closed the border between Tijuana in Mexico and San Diego in California and used tear gas on migrants and refugees, including children, whoever tried to cross the border fence. According to Al Jazeera, the US border protection agency took to Twitter announcing the closure of border as thousands of asylum seekers marched towards the border in an attempt to put pressure on the US government to allow them to enter the US soil.
The incident took place because of rising frustrations among immigrants due to slow processing of their asylum claims by the US authorities. Thousands of immigrants have arrived at the US-Mexico border in the recent weeks from all over Central America, fleeing violence, poverty or political persecution in their countries. Al Jazeera reported that more than 5,000 migrants and refugees have been cramped into a Tijuana stadium complex, near the Mexican border, that is more than 2,000 people over capacity. Apprehensions of Families Illegally Crossing into US Border Hit Record High.
Previous week (November 22), Trump threatened to shut the US border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time, fearing the collective exodus of the refugees and deployed thousands of US military troops at the border, giving them expanded powers, including the "ok" to use lethal force.