[dropcap size=big]S[/dropcap]ixty-nine people were apprehended by U.S. agents in the melee that erupted after hundreds attempted to rush the border boundary in Tijuana on Sunday. On the Mexican side, 98 people are in Mexican immigration custody and are to be deported, mostly to Honduras, officials said.
The arrests marked a wild and largely unfamiliar scene at the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.
An estimated 500 people — reportedly mostly men, although some women and children were present — attempted to rush the Chaparral port entry between Tijuana and the San Diego community of San Ysidro. Mexican federal police in riot gear and U.S. agents across the line pushed back the group. Scenes of chaos spread globally after border officers fired tear gas and pepper balls to repel the migrants, who were seen scattering across the concrete channel of the Tijuana River where it reaches U.S. territory.
“Fumes were carried by the wind toward people who were hundreds of feet away,” the Associated Press reported.