SAN DIEGO—A group of approximately 60 migrants rushed the U.S.-Mexico border in California, after breaking through the metal fence with a knife—a process that took less 10 minutes. Authorities have only arrested 52 so far.
A video taken by YouTuber MexicanAndy on the Mexican side of the fence shows a man nodding yes when he asks if they were breaking through the wall.
“They want to break the wall,” the YouTuber said in the Livestream on March 14.
After about half of the group crossed the border into the United States, a nearby border patrol agent responded to the illegal entries. Once the agent left his position to chase the suspects, the rest of the group on the Mexican side forced their way through the same gap in the fence and began running north along the Pacific coastline.
Tijuana resident Analina Duarte capture footage of the border rush on her cell phone.
“One border patrol agent against all of them, they won’t be able to handle it,” Duarte is heard saying in Spanish, referring to the one SUV directly north of the border fence.
Cruce de migrantes por Playas de Tijuana
#ReporteCiudadanoReportan un Cruce masivo de migrantes por Playas de Tijuana.
由 Frontera.info 发布于 2019年3月14日周四
Fifty-two of the migrants were arrested, including 23 men between the ages of 18 and 53, 12 women between ages 21 and 50, and 17 minors between ages 1 to 14. The majority said they are from Honduras and arrived in Tijuana as part of a caravan, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.
All 52 were taken to a local border patrol station for identification and processing where everyone then claimed asylum, San Diego CBP said. Agents are still looking for the other suspects.
The border rush comes one day after a smaller group breached the same fence on March 13.
A group of men were seen helping a young girl through a gap in the fence and handing her to a man who had already gotten through the barrier—presumably her father—on the U.S. side of the wall. The man then takes off running north with the child in his arms.
On March 15, CBP began reinforcing the breached fence with concertina wire and installing metal sheets between the metal pillars, Mexican media reported.
The beach in Playas de Tijuana is where many Central American migrants have gathered after arriving in the large caravan that brought thousands to the doorstep of the United States last October.
The rush comes at the heel of a Senate resolution that would terminate President Donald Trump’s national border emergency declaration.
Trump vetoed the bill on March 15.
