On November 25, 2018 Central American migrants attempted to approach the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Mexico in order to request asylum in the United States.
“THE SUN SHINES FOR ALL”
Members of the migrant caravan were attempting to organize a march from the Benito Juarez sports complex, a temporary camp in northern Tijuana, to the San Ysidro Port of Entry as they had done routinely in the preceding weeks.
By noon, marchers were stopped at the foot of the Chaparral Bridge that crosses the Tijuana River. Exhausted, desperate, and agitated, the marchers overwhelmed Mexican federal police making a run for the river.
An hour later the migrants began to move down river to where it intersects with the US-Mexico border initiating their first contact with United States border patrol and Homeland Security officers.
At approximately 1:15 pm tensions reached a breaking point. United States Customs and Border Patrol Officers fired their first volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets into Mexico at Central American nationals, allegedly in response to rocks thrown.
By 2:00 pm most of the original migrant marchers had retreated ceding the field to teenagers and younger adults without children. The next hour was a series of tit-for-tat exchanges between Central American migrants alongside their US and Mexican civilian supporters and United States Customs and Border Patrol agents. Mexican Federal Police were conspicuously absent during this period.
Just before 3:00 pm Mexican Federal Police finally re-entered the scene to de-escalate the situation only to find themselves consumed by tear gas alongside migrant marchers they were clashing with hours earlier.
“The Sun Shines for All”