Trump Defends Tear Gas Use Against Women and Children at Border

FEATURING LAURA CARLSEN – Mexico’s government has asked the US to launch “a full investigation” into the use of tear gas canisters over the weekend that Border Patrol agents lobbed over the fence into Mexico near the San Diego port of entry. On three different occasions, Trump defended the use of tear gas and blamed the refugees for their plight on Monday.

Images of women and barefoot children fleeing the teargas have generated outrage. The US is reported to be processing only about a hundred asylum applications a day, leaving the thousands of refugees stuck in Mexico where there have been clashes with Mexican federal police.

Laura Carlsen, Director of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy, a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus, based in Mexico City. She has been closely following the refugee caravan.