Mexico said on Monday that it deported 98 Central American migrants who "violently" and "illegally" tried to cross the border into the United States.
Gerardo Garcia Benavente from Mexico's migration office said the migrants were sent back to their respective countries the night when the violent encounter between the "migrant caravan" and border authorities erupted.
The members of the caravan were mostly from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, BBC has learned. These people said they are escaping the violence happening in their countries, wanting to seek for refuge and better lives in the United States.
The migrant caravan was believed to have 500 members and traveled more than 2,500 miles from Central America to seek asylum in the US. They joined a march from a Tijuana shelter into the U.S. border on Sunday.
The march started out as merely a peaceful protest as the participants were carrying pro-immigration banners.
Chaos erupted when they get closer to the border. At this point, the hundreds of migrants rushed to climb over the barriers, BBC reported. When some of them were able to reach the second layer of barriers, U.S. border officials began firing tear gas on them.
Pictures emerged of the chaos showed children, a few still wearing a diaper, running for cover. Mothers were scrambling to protect their children while some men tried their best to cross the still.
There were unconfirmed reports that some activists convinced the caravan to split into groups so officials would have a hard time getting them.
More chaos similar to what happened on Sunday is expected to happen as more migrants, as many as 10,000, are expected to take the same route as they reach Tijuana, The New York Times reported.
Observers believed that the situation may impact the US-Mexico relations at a time where free trade had just been sealed through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA which replaced the NAFTA.
The incoming president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who will assume office beginning Saturday, has political agendas in direct conflict with US President Donald Trump with regard to how migrants are going to be handled.
Lopez Obrador had promised jobs and visas to these migrants. Known to have the "heart for the poor," the new Mexican president wanted to keep the migrants in Mexico while they apply for asylum in the United States. This in effect indicates that he wants to defend the migrants' rights to seek asylum in the US, putting him in direct conflict with what Trump had always wanted, NYT pointed out.
Now, the international community awaits on whether Loez Obrador will continue defending the poor - a will which built his entire political career - or will he be singing Trump's tune in order not to compromise the economic relations Mexico has with the United States.
