US border authorities fired tear gas during a clash with members of a migrant caravan after a group estimated to be in the hundreds stormed the busiest port of entry along the Mexico border on Sunday.
A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson confirmed agents deployed "crowd dispersing devices," which included pepper-ball launching systems and CS gas canisters, commonly known as tear gas, to deter the migrants.
Chaos broke out as migrants got close to the border agents in riot gear and reportedly attempted to break through barbed wire and metal sheeting.
Children screamed and coughed as clouds of gas spread out across hundreds of yards, the Associated Press reported.
"We ran, but when you run the smoke asphyxiates you more," Ana Zuniga, a 23-year-old woman from Honduras, told the AP while holding her 3-year-old daughter.
A CBP spokesperson said Sunday evening that officials were still gathering accounts from agents and officers who were deployed to the border. The spokesperson also said there were "multiple instances of persons throwing projectiles at CBP personnel," and border agents had apprehended people who attempted to cross the port of entry illegally.
Despite statements from CBP and the Department of Homeland Security, reports of mothers and young children with burning eyes running from the tear gas launched by US authorities sparked immediate reactions from civil rights organizations and across social media.
The San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement from its deputy political director, Lorella Praeli, who refuted the agency's claims of an appropriate response, calling the move "outrageous and inhumane."
"Under no circumstances should CBP be using tear gas on children," Praeli wrote. "This show of violence is outrageous and inhumane. The migrants at our southern border are human beings, including mothers and small children, who are exercising their legal, human right to seek asylum."
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, criticized Border Patrol in a Monday morning CNN appearance, calling the use of tear gas and riot gear an "overuse of force."
"No one wants a Border Patrol agent to be in danger," Gelernt said, responding to reports of migrants throwing rocks at officials. "But from what we know, this was an overuse of force. There are women and children out there. Using tear gas in this situation does not seem justified."
Gelernt continued to say the project was investigating the incident and added: "This would not be the first time there was excessive force by Border Patrol."
A judge in Tucson, Arizona, ruled last week that Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz was not guilty of involuntary manslaughter after firing 16 rounds through the border fence from Nogales, Arizona, into Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, and killing 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.
Swartz claimed he was defending his life against Elena Rodriguez, who was throwing rocks.
Amnesty International condemned the use of tear gas in a tweet Sunday and assigned blame to President Donald Trump's administration, which recently announced the deployment of over 5,000 troops to the border in anticipation of the caravan's long-anticipated arrival.
—Amnesty International (@amnestyusa) November 25, 2018
