The northbound border – cars are being turned around and Mexican federal police have created a barrier as CBP officials shut down the US border entry and military soldiers line up on the other side at San Ysidro Port of Entry pic.twitter.com/6CVXOQ8919
— Annie Rose Ramos (@Annie_Rose23) November 25, 2018
San Ysidro is the largest border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana. On Sunday afternoon, US Customs and Border Patrol announced that it was shutting down the crossing, after hundreds of people from the Caravan of Migrants tried to rush the border to get through to the US. Mexican and US officials responded with coordinated force to hold back the crowds of people trying to cross into the US to claim asylum.
After the border was shut down, reporters on the scene said that Mexican federal police were working together with US Customs officials to create a barricade on both sides of the crossing point. You can see Mexican riot police lined up at the border, here:
The Mexican federal police have shut down the border into Mexico – hundreds of riot police are lined up and no incoming cars are being allowed to enter from the US into Mexico pic.twitter.com/cNY0MZktAZ
— Annie Rose Ramos (@Annie_Rose23) November 25, 2018
You can watch would-be migrants pushig past a group of Mexican police and approaching the border before it was shut down:
US Border Agents Fired Tear Gas Into the Crowd of Migrants
The Associated Press and BBC reported that US Border Patrol had fired tear gas at the enormous group of migrants. You can see photos of the gas, lingering in the air, here:
BREAKING Tear gas in the air at the San Ysidro crossing between Mexico and California where some migrants tried to breach the border, which has been closed.
📷by @hannahmckay88 and @topixkim for @Reuters
And you can see the crowds fleeing the tear gas — among them, mothers with small children — here:
BREAKING US agents have fired tear gas at migrants trying to breach the border between Mexico and the United States.
📷 @Reuters
Migrants Said Conditions at the Temporary Shelter Were ‘Intolerable’ & They Wanted to Apply for Asylum Immediately
On Sunday afternoon,members of the ‘Caravan of Migrants” said that conditions at the shelter where they were staying — near Mexico’s border with the US — had become intolerable. Reports from the scene say that the river itself had begun to stink of sewage, and that the people were desperate to get away from the filth.
You can watch them trying to get to the San Ysidro crossing ahead of the closing, here:
Migrants lining up to cross the Tijuana river it smells overwhelmingly of sewage trying to get to the US San Ysidro port of entry – about 4 helicopters flying above up