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MEXICO – A peaceful march organized by Central American migrants waiting at the US's southwestern border derailed Sunday afternoon, as hundreds of people tried to evade a police blockade Mexican and ran to a giant border in California.
In response, the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency closed the border crossing in both directions.
Mexican Federal Police officers met with the demonstration in Tijuana, Mexico, on a bridge leading to the San Ysidro border crossing, crossed by millions of people and vehicles each year. At that time, some of the migrants tried to bypass the police crossing a dry riverbed.
The police, wearing riot shields, then formed a new line and appeared to contain the flow of immigrants to a hundred meters from the crossing. They erected metal barriers on the roads and sidewalks leading to the crossing.
A group of migrants then tried to get to the crossing where they were met by police officers who released tear gas to stop them.
The troubles occurred while Mexico was trying to deal with thousands of Central American migrants who have arrived in Tijuana to try to seek asylum or, in some cases, to cross the US border illegally.
Migrants spent the past 10 days in squalid conditions at a community sports center converted into a makeshift shelter. Many became increasingly desperate with the realization of the obstacles that still awaited them to reach the United States.
City officials in Tijuana said they had no money to improve conditions in the sports center, where about 5,000 migrants would be accommodated.
