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US Special Customs and Border Protection Task Force officers stand guard at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Southern California following the temporary closure of the land border with Mexico on Monday. (Adrees Latif / Reuters)
Nick Miroff
Journalist in charge of immigration, drug trafficking and national security law enforcement
Homeland Security officials said on Monday they had further restricted vehicle traffic at the country's busiest San Ysidro border post, after receiving reports that crowds of migrants in Tijuana might attempt to cross their checkpoints.
US Customs and Border Protection closed the entire San Ysidro crossing for several hours before dawn, installing additional layers of razor wire and concrete obstacles. It has reopened with 10 of the 26 lanes reserved for vehicles in the port.
The temporary closure was one of the measures taken by the government in recent days to "harden" the crossing of the US border as thousands of Central American migrants belonging to caravan groups arrived in Tijuana with the aim of entering the United States. -United.
Over the weekend, work crews adorned the border fence at the southern end of San Diego's Imperial Beach with 18-foot bouffant concertina wire groves, a view from President Trump . popular in a tweet saying, in part, "more mountaineers under our administration!" In recent weeks, US military and construction crews have installed 12.3 miles of razor wire along the Mexican border, according to an internal security official.
Border officials said the fortifications were needed to prevent large crowds from forcibly entering the country.
"In the early hours of the morning, CBP officials received reports of groups of people gathering in the caravan in Tijuana City to try to illegally cross the entry point instead of the to report properly to a CBP agent, "the agency said Monday in a statement.
"CBP officers suspended their operations to secure barriers at the port of entry at the port of entry, which would restrict access to a large group of people attempting to cross the border crossing. After CBP's response to San Ysidro, no activity has materialized at the border crossing, "the statement said.
Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a group of activists who helps guide the caravan, dismissed claims that it was intended to cross the border as a "deliberate attempt to mislead the public and demonize refugees." ".
According to the latest statistics from the Department of Homeland Security, nearly 6,000 migrants have arrived in Tijuana and another 1,600 are in the city of Mexicali, which is also seeking entry into the United States. In total, between 8,500 and 10,500 people travel with caravan groups, DHS officials said.
A large number of migrants arriving in Tijuana say they are fighting for life because of gang violence and criminality in Central America, particularly in Honduras, and are considering seeking asylum in the United States.
[At U.S. border, migrant caravan will slow to a crawl]
US authorities have urged them to submit their applications at ports of entry, and Trump has placed new restrictions on the possibility for those entering the United States illegally to apply. CBP officials treat between 60 and 100 asylum seekers a day.
But with thousands of asylum seekers in Tijuana on a waiting list to be able to approach the American waypoint and apply, it can be months before migrants arriving with the caravan have a chance. to get out of it.
The US authorities are therefore worried about more desperate attempts to cross, especially if large groups gather along the border and the situation becomes hostile.
US border official Kevin McAleenan was nearly hit by a rock when he approached the fence to talk to the migrants late Friday, said Rodney Scott, chief of the San Diego Border Patrol area. .
"While he was conversing across the wall with people on the south side, someone threw a big rock on the commissar, narrowly missing him," Scott wrote in a message posted on Instagram.
DHS officials confirmed the incident Monday, but said they were unaware who had thrown the rock, which was about the size of a golf ball. McAleenan was unhurt.
President Trump said earlier this month that US troops would consider throwing stones as an armed attack, but he repeated the remarks the next day and said soldiers would not open fire.
Sarah Kinosian in Tijuana and Maria Sacchetti in Washington contributed to this report.
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