Desperate times call for desperate measures, and yesterday’s footage from the US-Mexico border shows just how desperate some people are to escape the horrors of their own countries.

About 500 migrants on the Mexican side of the border near San Diego rushed the border area, leading US Border Patrol agents to fire tear gas at the group.

Footage from the Tijuana gates showed violent clashes, with authorities on the US side using tear gas, saying that “the migrants threw projectiles that struck several agents”.

CNN reports:

The incident marked an escalation of tensions that have been mounting since groups of Central American migrants began arriving in Tijuana a few weeks ago on their journey to attempt to gain entry to the United States…

The melee closed one of the world’s busiest international crossings, San Ysidro Port of Entry, to vehicle and pedestrian traffic for several hours. By Sunday afternoon, CBP reopened crossing lanes in both directions to pedestrians and vehicles.

Footage of the clash shows just how chaotic the situation became:

More of the choppers and teargas:

The fact that these people are so desperate to enter the US tells us something about the places they leave behind. During the protest, which begun peacefully, they asked that the US speed up processing asylum requests at the border.

Many have been waiting for lengthy amounts of time to have their asylum requests filed and heard, and travelling in large groups, or caravans as they have been dubbed, offers increased safety on the long journey to the border.

The Daily Beast spoke with some of the migrants:

Keyla Villatorres fled the growing violence in Honduras last month with her eight-year-old son Justin and joined an exodus of migrants to the United States.

The 25-year-old traveled more than 2,500 miles in 40 days, taking refuge in this desert metropolis in the shadow of the U.S.-Mexico border. Along the way, she relied on the support of fellow migrants rather than hiring traffickers known as coyotes that she couldn’t afford to smuggle them through Mexico…

Drug gangs and corrupt government officials are known to prey upon Central American migrants in Mexico. There have been robberies, kidnappings, even massacres. The route north is especially dangerous for women. According to Amnesty International, 60 percent of migrant women and girls from the nations of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are raped while migrating.

Traveling with migrants in a high-profile caravan of such historic size gives single mothers like Villatorres a measure of security.  “I feel safe,” Villatorres said of her experience in the caravan. “We come with family, with friends, and we meet each other. We share what we can and support one other.”

Let that sink in for a second – 60%.

These caravans aren’t giant mobs of drug mules and criminals (although there may both in their midst), but mostly families fleeing atrocities in their own countries, looking for a better way of life in America.

Back to Villatorres and her friends:

Like many of the migrants here, she intends to seek asylum in the U.S through Tijuana.

Even the first step in the process, however, requesting asylum and getting a “credible fear” interview, could take weeks or months due to a more restrictive policy under Trump…

Darwín Mejía is a Honduran close in age to Villatorres. He is 23, a former employee of a textile mill, and like her, is venturing far from Honduras for the first time. Mejía stays in a smaller tent beside hers and is a constant companion. “We’re just good friends,” she says…

The caravan, Mejía says, is comprised of people like them who come from nothing, who have nothing but family, and who support one other. “We are wholesome people with a drive to succeed and help those who are to close us,” he said.

The US is well within its rights to defend its border, and they should do so aggressively, but it’s the demonisation and dehumanisation of these migrants that is so sickening to watch.

Then again, given that the leader of the free world is completely incapable of even basic compassion, we can expect the vitriol to escalate.

[sources:cnn&dailybeast]