Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan answered questions on CNN on Monday evening about the migrant caravan and the Border Patrol’s use of tear gas.
“We work very hard to process people arriving without documents, seeking asylum, lawfully, at a port of entry every day. We do that about 300 a day, across our 26 crossing the El Chaparral border,” McAleenan said.
“Now, with these large groups forming, and with the request to have people present lawfully at ports of entry, that’s something we need to work on with Mexico. How do you manage this large group, provide access to a lawful process? And, of course, Mexico has gone out of their way to provide protection, to offer asylum, to offer work in Mexico to this group. And a number of the migrants have taken advantage of that,” he added. “Others say they want to wait to present to the U.S. and then, of course, we saw over 1,000 of them try a different route yesterday.”
Watch the full interview: