Navy SEAL Challenges Iconic Image of Teargassed Migrants at Mexico Border

Maria Lila Meza Castro (C), a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, runs away from tear gas with her 5-year-old twin daughters Saira Nalleli Mejia Meza (L) and Cheili Nalleli Mejia Meza (R) in front of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, in Tijuana, Mexico, Nov. 25, 2018. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters/File photo

The former U.S. Navy SEAL who fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden has weighed in on an iconic photograph of a migrant mother with two barefoot children against a backdrop of a smoking tear gas canister.

“A good rule for parenting: Don’t bum-rush the border of a sovereign nation with your toddlers,” wrote former special warfare operator Robert J. O'Neill, in a post on Twitter, referring to the Nov. 25 photo taken moments after a group of Central American migrants rushed the border crossing into San Diego and were forced back by tear gas.