Blame for Sunday\u2019s violence at the Mexican border should fall squarely on those who misled the caravan migrants into thinking they\u2019d be waved right in.\u2026<\/b>
\nBlame for Sunday\u2019s violence at the Mexican border should fall squarely on those who misled the caravan migrants into thinking they\u2019d be waved right in.
Nearly 1,000 tried to \u201cviolently\u201d breach the San Ysidro crossing, Border Patrol chief Carla Provost said. After blowing past Mexican riot police, some threw rocks and bottles, hitting US agents. Then the crowd pushed through the fencing; at least 69 migrants were nabbed on US soil.
Agents responded with tear gas and temporarily closed the crossing. They had little choice: As Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen noted, the moves were meant \u201cto ensure public safety\u201d as migrants tried \u201cto enter the US illegally\u201d and \u201charm [Customs and Border Patrol] personnel.\u201d
President Trump\u2019s threat to \u201cclose the Border permanently\u201d is over the top, like so much of his commentary on the caravan. But these migrants were never going to just walk into the country; that would set off a rush for entry from all over the world.
Heck, even Obama-era agents used pepper spray and other force when a far smaller group rushed the same crossing.
Democrats who said nothing then, like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, are now blasting Team Trump and demanding that \u201cthose responsible\u201d for the tear gas be held \u201caccountable.\u201d
Recall that this caravan began as a political ploy by the opposition back in Honduras, an effort to embarrass the new president there. But the promise of safe passage across all of Mexico plainly raised false hopes about the US border \u2014 and the dashing of those hopes prompted Sunday\u2019s rush to cross.
It\u2019s all complicated by the mess of US immigration law (and US border enforcement), and by ideologues happy to manipulate naive, poor people in order to score debating points in Washington.
The only folks you shouldn\u2019t blame are the Border Patrol agents simply trying their best to do their job of protecting the nation.<\/p>\n