Migrant caravan: White House says ‘no one wants to use tear gas on women and children’

Trump has urged Mexico to deport those in their country seeking asylum in US

Migrants enveloped in tear gas after heading toward US

More than 5,000 Central American migrants in Tijuana, Mexico wait for their applications for asylum to be processed as Donald Trump continues to crack down on their entry into the US.

Speaking at a roundtable with supporters in Mississippi, Mr Trump claimed the tear gas used against asylum seekers was “very safe”.

The US president went on to say that some of the women pictured with the tear gas are not really parents but are instead “grabbers” who steal children to have a better chance of being granted asylum. He cited no evidence to back-up his claim.

Amid the tear gas crisis, Mr Trump has continued to demand Congress fund his proposed border wall, running the 2,000 miles of the US-Mexico border, cutting through land in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. 

Mr Trump had, for nearly two years on the campaign trail and in the White House, promised Mexico would foot the massive bill for the project without ever saying why or how they would do so.

However, a partial government shutdown looms. Congress has just 11 days to pass a spending bill which would fund, among other agencies, the border-policing Department of Homeland Security. 

Saturday Night Live skit parodies Fox News coverage of Migrant Caravan

Mr Trump has been threatening to bring the $312bn bill to a standstill over his border wall proposal. 

Democrats have accused him of putting at risk the one function of government he wants to shore up with the wall - all for the sake of saving face on his campaign promise. 

The president's supporters say his base will understand the stance because he is putting "America First". 

Mexico's incoming foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard has said that something like a new Marshall Plan is needed to deal with the number with the issue of refugees and migrants heading to Mexico and the US from Central America.

Mr Ebrard was speaking to reporters during a news conference in Mexico City. Named after General George Marshall, the Marshall Plan was a US-backed aid scheme to rebuild Western Europe after the devastation of the Second World War.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be meeting with Mr Ebrard, who will officially take office on 1 December as President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also known by the acronym Amlo is sworn into office. 

He is already facing a dilemma about his proposal to issue work visas to the Central American migrants so they do not have to cross the border into the US. 

Donald Trump defends use of tear gas at Mexico border

A poll in El Universal, one of Mexico's largest newspapers, showed 52 per cent supported the idea while 40 per cent opposed it. 

 

The poll stated 70 per cent of Mexicans had some sort of negative view about the migrant caravan. 

 

Just about half supported blocking the migrants' entry into Mexico, which with this latest caravan was via a crossing point on the Suchiate River bordering Guatemala. Around 55 per cent supported the Mexican government taking harsher measures to prevent future caravans. 

 

Support for the migrants has been declining even from their steadfast Mexican supporters. 

With migrants feeling deflated after the tear gas clash, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said it "reiterates that members of the caravans that cross our country should respect Mexican laws and not engage in actions that affect the communities they pass through." 

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

"It is important to note that the fact the Mexican government protects their rights does not imply a free pass to break the law," the group said in a rare moment of less than full-throated support for the migrants. 

A large part of the support issue is due to economics. For the six million people who live in the border region this could prove disastrous economically.

Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to close the San Ysidro port of entry near San Diego, California, and Tiajuana, Mexico.

The San Ysidro port of entry has a more than $220 billion dollar economy passing through its gates.

San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce on yesterday’s port of entry shutdown. pic.twitter.com/Xphgd4TkEt

— Maya Srikrishnan (@msrikris) November 27, 2018

Follow live updates below

Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load

Key Points

• Trump says the use of tear gas on migrants was 'very safe' 
• Mexico has asked for a full investigation of the tear gas incident
• A Mexican immigrant who sought refuge in a North Carolina church is set to be deported 

[27 November 2018 13:54 · Chris Stevenson]

Hello and welcome to our coverage of the refugee and migrant caravan on the US-Mexico border.

[27 November 2018 13:59 · Chris Stevenson]

While Mexico has called for a "full investigation" into the use of tear gas on the border on Sunday, President Donald Trump has sought to defend the use of the gas.

[27 November 2018 14:04 · Chris Stevenson]

At a roundtable in Mississippi, Mr Trump called the use of the gas "very safe" before implying that some of the pictures of mothers with children caught up in its use were actually "grabbers".

"Grabbers" are women who take children who are not their own across the border with the aim of seeking asylum.

​There is no evidence this is the case.

[27 November 2018 14:06 · Chris Stevenson]

Here is Mr Trump giving his thoughts on the caravan last night:

 

[27 November 2018 14:16 · Chris Stevenson]

Away from the border, two congressmen say a Mexican immigrant who had sought refuge in a North Carolina church has been rejected in a formal request to stay in the U.S. to support his family.  

Representatives GK Butterfield and David Price have announced that Samuel Oliver-Bruno's petition for deferred deportation was denied.  

Mr Oliver-Bruno, 47, was at an immigration office last week to pursue that application when he was detained. The congressmen say he left the church after 11 months because immigration officials told him to have his fingerprints taken as part of the application. 

[27 November 2018 14:28 · Chris Stevenson]

Here is a wrap on the latest on the comments from the president.

​

[27 November 2018 14:48 · Chris Stevenson]

In other Mexico-US news, the man who will head Mexico's finance ministry in December has said officials are expected to sign a revamped trade agreement with the United States and Canada at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina this week.  

Carlos Urzua said late Monday that "all possibilities" point to a signing in Argentina. 

[27 November 2018 15:04 · Mythili Sampathkumar]

Mr Trump has said he would close the entire border with Mexico even if it meant putting trade, particularly in vehicles, in jeopardy. 

The US, Canada, and Mexico just spent several months negotiating the USMCA, a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) 

[27 November 2018 15:15 · Mythili Sampathkumar]

Beto O'Rourke may have lost his bid for the Senate seat from Texas to incumbent Republican Ted Cruz, but he has become a darling of the Democratic party in the process. 

Mr O'Rourke has come out with his own response to the tensions with the migrant caravan from his perspective as a native of El Paso, Texas. 

He wrote in a post on Medium: "It should tell us something about her home country that a mother is willing to travel 2,000 miles with her 4-month old son to come here. Should tell us something about our country that we only respond to this desperate need once she is at our border. So far, in this administration, that response has included taking kids from their parents, locking them up in cages, and now tear gassing them at the border." 

[27 November 2018 15:22 · Mythili Sampathkumar]

Mr O'Rourke addressed the heart of the conflict over the weekend at the San Ysidro port of entry near San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico: asylum applications. 

Of the approximately 5,000 migrants camped out at a sports complex in the Mexican city, many are seeking asylum in the US as they flee rampant gang violence in their native Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. 

The US border agents, however, are processing less than 100 applications per day with murky timelines for those waiting. 

Mr O'Rourke wrote: "Allow asylum seekers to petition for asylum at our ports of entry. They must do so peacefully and follow our laws; but we must also ensure the capacity to effectively and timely process those claims (right now 5,000 waiting in Tijuana and only 40 to 100 are processed a day)."