Tensions rise at US-Mexico border as migrants wait to cross
Hundreds of migrants from Central America traveling through Mexico have gathered around a tense US border crossing, where US security measures created long lines of Mexicans headed to the US to attend Thanksgiving gatherings.
With few belongings, and many of them with children in tow, the migrants set out for the crossing from the baseball field in the Mexican border city of Tijuana where they have been camped out.
They arrived at the Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana on Thursday, opposite San Diego, California, and said they would wait there until they could request asylum, in spite of growing US measures to tighten the border.
Around 6,000 migrants who have trekked across Mexico in a caravan in recent weeks are now crammed into the baseball field.
“We are already desperate, last night it rained and we all got wet. There is no room left. We are all sick. My children have a cold ... and nobody has come to give us help,” said David, a Honduran who only provided his first name.
Earlier on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had authorized the use of lethal force on the border and warned that the United States could close the whole frontier.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans enter the United States daily to work or study, and many were trying to get to Thanksgiving celebrations.
Tensions were palpable at the Tijuana border crossing into San Diego, which was briefly shuttered in the afternoon by US officials as they performed a security exercise.
Mexican police and soldiers stood guard at the border crossing, where the Central Americans had gathered, while a helicopter buzzed over the US side.
Authorities in Tijuana said the migrants are facing up to a six-month wait to be able to get an appointment to plead their case for asylum with US authorities.
Earlier this week, US officials briefly closed the main border crossing in Tijuana, putting up concrete barricades and razor wire after reports that migrants could try to rush the crossing.
“I want President Trump to know that we’re peaceful people, we don’t have weapons, we haven’t come to do evil,” said a man who declined to give his name, holding a white flag on a wooden stick that read “Peace, God is with us.” “We want to work, we want them to help us for the love of God,” he added.
Trump has made his hard-line stance on immigration an integral part of his presidency and a key issue during the midterm congressional elections this month.
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