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Kurtz: The threat of migrants can be both politicized and real
Howard Kurtz, host of "MediaBuzz", comments on the violent clashes in Tijuana as hundreds of migrants try to escape the Mexican police and head for a border crossing to San Diego, forcing the authorities to close the border. border for several hours the returning migrants.
Well, I guess some people in the caravan were trying to create problems after all.
The situation became unmanageable in Tijuana on Sunday as hundreds of migrants tried to escape the Mexican police and headed for a border crossing to San Diego.
Customs officers closed the border for hours and fired tear gas to repel the migrants. Some threw stones at US officers, a number of whom were hit, and the border was closed for hours. Some 42 migrants were arrested on the American side.
Overall, not a beautiful picture.
The inevitable political question: was President Trump right about the caravan?
The media portrayed the shameful president at the threat of the caravan, which began in Honduras, only to awaken its base for the mid-term.
Of course, two things are not mutually exclusive. Trump beat the caravan with the aim of making illegal immigration a major mid-term problem. And most of the media treated the migrants on the move as compassionate people who did not threaten anyone.
The reality has turned out to be more complicated. Not all migrants were a threat and many were justifiably hoping to seek asylum to escape persecution or economic hardship. But among the hundreds of people who stormed the San Diego border, as part of a protest that opposed the slowness of asylum applications, clearly figured many violent people who were trying to hurt federal agents.
Trump wasted no time on Twitter yesterday morning: "Mexico should silence the flag by waving migrants, many of whom are rabid criminals, in their country."
I do not know on what basis the president claims that "many" have a criminal record, but some have clearly committed a crime on Sunday.
That's Trump's description of the caravan as an "invasion" that prompted CNN's Jim Acosta to debate it and refuse to give up the microphone, which led the White House to withdraw its powers. until their recovery by a federal judge.
I doubt that the confrontation will do everything in its power to put an end to the stalemate of the partisans on this issue, especially with the takeover by the Democrats in the House.
The president and his allies rely on this violent incident to argue that illegal immigrants pose a threat to the security of Americans. In his tweet, Trump said: "We will close the border permanently if need be.The Congress, finance the WALL!"
But liberals and Latino activists learn a different lesson. An article in the Los Angeles Times said that "US government images using tear gas on a group of migrants with children disrupted other people, who pointed out that this highlighted the cruel approach of the Trump administration ".
On this point, such action is not without precedent. There was a similar incident in 2013, under the Obama administration, in which a hundred immigrants threw stones and bottles at border patrol agents, who fought back with gas peppered in the same region.
There was a strange diplomatic dance this weekend when the Washington Post notably praised an agreement between the administration and the new Mexican government to keep asylum seekers in this country during the application process. . But then, Mexican transition officials backed off and said that he had not agreed to it.
There will always be another caravan. What is clear is that this thorny and emotional issue is not resolved, even though the last election is over.
