Mexico Deports 100 ‘Violent’ Migrants After Caravan Mob Rushed Border

Mexican authorities said that 100 violent migrants have been deported following Sunday, Nov. 25’s rush on the United States border.

A mob of migrants tried to overwhelm U.S. Border Patrol agents and troops but were mostly driven back to Tijuana after tear gas was fired to disperse the crowd.

Following the rush, Mexican officials said they planned to deport some of the migrants involved.

In addition to the approximately 100 migrants that were deported, nearly 2,000 Central Americans who were part of the migrant caravans have requested to be returned home, the Mexican government said. Many of those have already been repatriated.

About 200 migrants filed for voluntary repatriation on Tuesday and Wednesday. A group of 105 migrants, most of them from Honduras, departed for their home country by plane from Tijuana on Tuesday, Gerardo Elías García, head of Mexico’s migration agency, told the Wall Street Journal.

“I’m leaving, I didn’t want to stay here suffering,” said one Honduras national, Ricci.  “It was a long-suffering [sic], and very costly and I had hope before, but now that I see the situation, how it is, I’ve lost hope and I want to go home to my children,” she added.

The group of around 100 migrants arrested for rushing the border was being transported to their home countries on buses, García noted.

The migrant caravans are mainly composed of Guatemalan, Honduran, and El Salvadorean nationals. At least 6,000 were in Tijuana as of Wednesday. Over 1,000 others were in Mexicali, also in Baja California.

Thousands more are moving north through Mexico toward the border.

The border rush prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten to permanently close the border while urging Mexico to deport the migrants back to their countries.

Migrants wait to receive donated food and water outside a temporary shelter set up for members of the migrant caravan in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov.28, 2018. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

No Serious Injuries

No one has been seriously injured besides a few “unfortunate incidents,” Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said on Nov. 28 in a broadcast from a government event, reported Reuters.

“There was one man who climbed on top of a trailer on a highway, he lost his balance and he fell off. Another, a migrant of Central American nationality, was run over. But no children, no women, no pregnant women, no elderly, no youth, not even the violent group [of migrants] have been seriously hurt,” he said.”

He also announced that “100 violent migrants have been repatriated.” Mexican officials have urged the migrants to accept asylum in Mexico, an offer many have rejected, or return to their countries.

Olga Sanchez Cordero, the incoming interior minister, said after the event that the immigration issue is the “most important issue” that the incoming administration has to deal with. She said that when migrants violate laws, the authorities will proceed accordingly.

Migrants break through the U.S. border fence just beyond the east pedestrian entrance of the San Ysidro crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 25, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

‘Self-Defense’

In a statement on Monday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that despite the migrants attacking American law enforcement officers, no migrants were seriously injured.

“Our Border Patrol agents and officers responded admirably and responsibly to the events on Sunday. It is a testament to their training and professionalism that no one was injured,” she said.

“The accepted use of nonlethal force (also used by the Obama Administration in 2013) prevented further injury to agents and a mass illegal rush across the border. We will not shy away from protecting our people,” she said.

She also said that the officers who fired tear gas were defending themselves after migrants launched projectiles and rocks at them.

“It is shocking that I have to explain this, but officers can be seriously or fatally injured in such attacks. Self-defense isn’t debatable for most law-abiding Americans,” she said.

From NTD News