Mexico To Beef Up Border Security After Migrants "Violently" Attempt To Enter US

Mexico has pledged to enhance its security near the US border after 39 migrants were arrested out of hundreds of Central Americans who "violently" tried to enter the US following a peaceful protest to appeal for faster processing of asylum requests. US agents fired tier gas into the Tijuana river aqueduct to try and stop some of the migrants making the push.

Approximately 500 migrants will immediately be deported after the attempted border crossing, according to Mexico's interior ministry, while the more than three-dozen arrested migrants were detained for disturbing the peace and other charges. 

Following the incident, most of the 5,000-plus migrants who have been camped out at a Tijuana sports arena for over a week returned to their shelter to rest and wait in line for food. 

As the situation spiraled out of control on Sunday, US authorities closed all traffic through the San Ysidro port - the nation's busiest land crossing, while agents deployed tear gas. Over 100,000 people enter the US daily via the port. 




The use of the gas has sparked a debate of its own between the left - which has decried its use on women and their children who were put in harm's way when they made a run for the border, and the right - which has noted that the gas was non-lethal and justifiable. 

US Customs and Border Protection helicopters were spotted hovering overhead throughtout Sunday, while DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement that US authorities will maintain a "robust" presence along the Southwestborder and will prosecute anyone found to have damaged federal property or who violates US sovereignty. 


President Trump on Monday threatened to close the border permanently if needed, tweeting that Mexico should move "stone-cold criminal" migrants back to their home countries. "do it by plane, do it by bus, do it any way you want but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A!," Trump tweeted, adding ""we will close the border permanently if need be" before demanding that Congress "fund the WALL."