Rodney Scott, the chief U.S. Border Patrol agent of San Diego, outlined the circumstances Monday morning that led to law enforcement utilizing tear gas at the United States-Mexican border.
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CNN host John Berman began the interview with Scott simply by asking, “explain the use of tear gas.”
Scott responded by saying that the main responsibility of Border Patrol is ensuring that “the border is safe and secure.”
The leading officer went on to challenge the notion that the migrants storming the border were part of a “peaceful protest” or that the “majority of these people were claiming asylum.” (RELATED: Border Patrol Agent: Group Of Migrants Missed Chance To Claim Asylum, Threw Rocks Instead)
Scott then candidly outlined the apparently raucous scene at the border, which ended with the deployment of tear gas.
Central American migrants -mostly from Honduras- sit alonh the concrete waterway of the bordering Tijuana River right across the El Chaparral border crossing point in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on November 25, 2018. (Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS / AFP/ Getty Images)
“Similarly to what we saw the first wave of the caravan came up a week or so ago, the group immediately started throwing rocks and debris at our agents, taunting the agents,” Scott said. “Once our agents were assaulted, and the numbers started growing, we had two or three agents at a time initially facing hundreds of people at a time, they deployed tear gas to protect themselves and to protect the border.”
He went on to add that three agents were actually struck with rocks and some military vehicles were severely dented. None of the injuries were serious, according to Scott.