United States President Donald Trump has claimed that the tear gas used against migrants at the Mexico border is "very safe".
"First of all, the tear gas is a very minor form of the tear gas itself. It's very safe. The ones that were suffering, to a certain extent, were the people that were putting it out there. Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it's going to be formed. And they are running up with a child," Sputnik quoted Trump as saying.
"And in some cases, you know, they are not the parents. They are people. They call them 'grabbers'. They grab a child because they think they are gonna have a certain status by having a child," he added.
Trump's decision to use tear gas against the migrants has been widely criticised by national media, with celebrities like Rihanna going as far as branding the act as "terrorism".
On November 25, the US Customs and Border Protection closed the border between Tijuana in Mexico and San Diego in California and used tear gas on migrants and refugees, including children, who tried to cross the border fence.