The day after Mexico’s ambassador warned of criminals lurking in the migrant caravan, Tijuana police confirmed the reported sexual assault of a minor at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex.
Mario Martinez, head of the Tijuana City Police, said the city’s Secretariat of Public Security received a report of a sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl by a Honduran man at the temporary shelter around 6 p.m. Thursday.
“An unpleasant situation reported in the morning by the mother of a child, where she mentions that her daughter went to the bathroom and was followed by a person, apparently Honduran,” Martinez told El Imparcial, according to The Epoch Times. “He touched her parts and sexually abused her.”
The news site adn40 reports the alleged perpetrator fled the facility before police arrived, and authorities are now working to track him down.
“The mother of the girl gave notice to the Mexican authorities and moments later elements of the Municipal Police arrived at the shelter where an operation as deployed to find the subject, although it was not located,” according to the site, translated by Google. “For her part, the minor was transferred to the Municipal Victim Assistance Unit, where she was attended by medical and psychological personnel.”
The alleged sex assault came just one day after Mexico’s ambassador to Washington, Geronimo Gutierrez, confirmed the Trump administration’s assertions that criminals are embedded in the migrant caravans in hopes of claiming asylum in the United States.
Gutierrez told the Washington Examiner the actual number of criminals is unclear, but “we share the opinion that there are people that have criminal backgrounds in that group …”
“I think … there’s a lot of concern and I can understand why the president and other people here are concerned about what is going on,” he said.
Folks in Tijuana dealing with the swelling numbers of migrants are also concerned, and they’re not shy about telling them like it is.
“Out Hondurans! We don’t want you here!” hundreds of locals chanted during a massive protest rally last week.
The group carried signs that read: “First our poor. First our people. Viva Mexico.”
Local Mexicans described the caravan as an “invasion” of ungrateful, messy and dangerous migrants that don’t deserve to live off Mexican taxes in shelters with free food and housing, The Guardian reports.
President Trump has repeatedly stressed that the U.S. government will not admit asylum seekers into the country “until their claims are individually approved in court” and created a new law that automatically bans asylum for any person who attempts to cross the border illegally.
“We only will allow those who come into our Country legally,” Trump posted to Twitter.
“All will stay in Mexico. If for any reason it becomes necessary, we will CLOSE our Southern Border. There is no way that the United States will, after decades of abuse, put up with this costly and dangerous situation anymore!” Trump tweeted.
#AlertaADN | La policía de #Tijuana informó que 39 centroamericanos fueron detenidos en la frontera por causar disturbios y riñas. #MantenlaEncendida con @roberto_ruizg | https://t.co/5arGxkH280 pic.twitter.com/KuQUeTUTw3
— adn40 (@adn40) November 26, 2018
Over the weekend, adn40 reports, “around 39 migrants were arrested in Tijuana for causing riots, fights, disrupting public order and assaulting citizens during the peaceful march, municipal police said.”
Those migrants, and others who busted a fence and attempted to rush into the U.S. near the San Ysidro port of entry, will be deported, according to the site.
The group of about 100 migrants allegedly hurled rocks and bottles at a lone border agent Sunday in an attempt to cross illegally, but the agent called for backup, and U.S. Border Patrol responded with pepper spray and other “intermediate use-of-force devices” to convince the group to turn back, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
“While attacks on Border Patrol agents are not uncommon, the agents showed great restraint when faced with the dangers of this unusually large group, and fortunately no one was serious injured,” Paul Beeson, San Diego sector chief for the Border Patrol, told the site.
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