During an interview with CNN Monday morning, San Diego Sector Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott pushed back on the narrative that his agents are tear gassing women and children. He also debunked the talking point that hundreds of illegal aliens who stormed the border over the weekend are simply "peaceful" asylum seekers.
"One of our primary missions is to keep the border safe and secure. I kind of challenge that this was a peaceful protest or that the majority of these people are seeking asylum. We ended up making about 42 arrests, only eight of those were females and there were only a few children involved. The vast majority of people we are dealing with are adult males," Scott said. "Similar to what we saw with the first wave, the caravan that came up about a week or so ago, the group immediately started throwing rocks and debris at the agents. Taunting the agents. Once our agents were assaulted 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."
"At least three agents were actually struck by rocks but they were in tactical gear so their helmets and their shields and bullet proof vests protected them from the rocks," he continued. "We did have a few vehicles that were damaged, some windows and quite a few dents."
Scott also revealed more than three dozen illegal aliens breached the border and assaulted agents on the U.S. side. They were arrested. Hundreds of Border Patrol agents have been moved to San Diego from other locations to handle the ongoing caravan crisis.
"What I saw on the border yesterday was not people walking up to Border Patrol agents and asking to claim asylum," Scott said. "One of the groups that I watched and several of them were arrested, they passed 10 or 15 marked Border Patrol units walking west to east. Numerous uniformed personnel as they were chanting, waving a Honduran flag and throwing rocks at the agents. If they were truly asylum seekers, they would have walked up with their hands up and surrendered. That is not what took place."
Ports of entry are currently at full capacity and wait times for asylum applications, which are usually illegitimate, can take six months or longer to process.