Venezuelan migrants were seen clashing with Mexican authorities Monday as police tried to evict a camp where thousands had been living and using the Rio Grande as a bathroom, US officials said. The Rio Grande separates Texas from Mexico.
Video footage obtained from a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter of the chaos unfolding in Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, shows migrants and Mexican federal police officers clashing near the river, which separates Mexico and the United States.
“They were using the river as a public restroom,” Texas DPS Lt. Christopher Olivarez told Fox News Digital. “You’ve got close to 1,000 in there. It got to the point where they just had to take them out. It was just causing too much trouble.”
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Venezuelan migrants camped on the Rio Grande River that separates Mexico and the United States clashed with Mexican police on Monday.
(Texas Department of Public Safety)
Authorities were clearing the camp in an effort to move the migrants to a shelter. Mexican police offered the migrants bus services and other forms of transportation to a shelter, Olivarez said.
They refused to allow a mass riot to take place.
“That’s when we saw that some of the Venezuelans were attacking some police officers… some even started small fires,” Olivarez said.
Police eventually used non-lethal weapons such as tear gas to disperse the crowd, he said.
Many of the migrants who stayed by the river are waiting to cross into the US after Dec. 20, when Title 42 expires, Olivarez said. The Trump-era public health order allows for the removal of migrants from the US due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monday’s incident occurred in the same area where the migrants clashed with US Border Patrol agents last month. The migrants illegally crossed into El Paso, Texas, while waving a giant Venezuelan flag.
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One officer was attacked with a flagpole and some were attacked with rocks, authorities said.
