5 hours agoUS shuts down border, pumps tear gas against immigrants
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)Tear gas has been issued by US police against detained immigrants on the border between the United States and Mexico, in the area between Tijuana and San Diego. The American authorities had closed the border after attempting to storm a group of immigrants who wanted to break into the United States. A caravan around [...]
The American authorities had closed the border after attempting to storm a group of immigrants who wanted to break into the United States.
A convoy of about 3,000 immigrants from Central American countries has already reached the Mexican border town of Tijuana. They claim they are shunning persecution, poverty and violence in their countries, such as Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
But President Donald Trump has described the convoy of immigrants, hoping to cross the border to enter the United States as “invaders”, so he has sent about 5,800 troops to the southern border to make it difficult to cross them.
On Wednesday, however, Mattis told reporters that the Department of Internal Security has not asked for troops to use “lethal force”, thus ensuring that all remain undisturbed.
He stressed that soldiers armed with rods and shields may have license plates to stop migrants for “a few minutes, nor hours is this”, but not the authority to arrest them.
If someone attacks a border patrol and we are in a position to do something about it, we will certainly stop them from exercising violence and hand them over to border patrols, who also have a license to arrest”, Mattis said.
Earlier this week, a federal judge blocked a warrant issued by Trump to deny the possibility of seeking asylum immigrants crossing the border illegally.
