As the caravan of people fleeing Honduras seeks asylum, they're met with tear gas and other deterrents intended to keep them in danger. CNN's Bill Weir is traveling with them.
October 19, 2018

CNN correspondent Bill Weir was nearly hit with a canister of tear gas while traveling with the refugee caravan from Honduras at the Mexican border.

When the caravan reached Mexico, the gates were locked.

"There's about 400 riot policemen, Federales, and for some reason on the Guatemalan side, there's this huge sea of humanity," Weir reported. "Children, toddlers. They came streaming up to the fence."

Weir said they tried to form a single file liine after they were told they'd be let in one at a time but the crowd could not be contained, and broke through the gates.

That prompted police to force the gates closed by firing smoke cannisters into the crowd, Weir told viewers.

As Weir was explaining why these people are so desperate -- they literally have no hope, no future, and nowhere to go except north -- he narrowly dodged what turned out to be a thrown water bottle.

From there, things degenerated. The police threw tear gas cannisters, one narrowly missing Weir, and ultiimately forced him to hand it back to CNN headquarters while he headed for safer ground.

As he points out in his report, the new president of Mexico will not take office until December. He is reported to have a much kinder attitude toward the migrants. The current president seems to be taking his orders from the U.S. "president" and his gang of xenophobic hater pals.

Can we just take a moment and think about the whole "let them in one at a time in an orderly fashion" tactic? That seems to me a way to separate families, to rip children right from their parents in an act of inhuman cruelty wrapped in the label "deterrence."

When you hear Trump or Fox News fearmongering about the hordes of migrants trying to come into the United States, remember that they're actually waiting patiently for them to try so they can take the children away and lock them in cages while they deport their parents.

Remind everyone you know that this happens because Donald Trump hates brown people and does not think of them as human. Remind everyone you know that Trump and his gang have no regard for the humanity of these people, that they are just fine with stealing people's children, locking them in cages, and then deporting their parents.

Do not let the fear mongers and haters frame this debate.

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