Federal agents have arrested 32 religious leaders and activists at the border in San Diego during a protest in support of the Central American migrant caravan.

More than 400 demonstrators, many of them leaders of churches, mosques, synagogues and indigenous communities, called for an end to the detention and deportation of migrants and for the US to welcome the caravan that arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, in November.

Singing and praying, religious leaders moved forward in lines of four to six, some wearing T-shirts reading “Love knows no borders”. They were handcuffed and led away by federal agents once they entered a restricted area in front of the fence.

Activists demonstrating against US migration policies gather near the US-Mexico border fence at Imperial beach in San Diego. Photograph: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images

“As a Quaker who believes in our shared humanity, We’re calling on the US to respect the rights of migrants,” said Joyce Ajlouny, the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, which organized the protest.

The border patrol spokesman Eduardo Olmos said 31 people were arrested on suspicion of trespassing by the Federal Protective service and one was arrested by the border patrol for assaulting an agent.

Activists are arrested near the border fence. Photograph: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images

Monday’s rally, held on a beach divided by the border fence, was the second confrontation for border patrol agents since a caravan of more than 6,000 migrants, predominantly Hondurans, reached Tijuana last month. The agents fired teargas into Mexico on 25 November and closed the nation’s busiest border crossing for five hours after rocks were thrown towards them from Mexico.

Thousands of migrants are living in tent cities in Tijuana after undertaking a grueling journey from Central America to the US border. Many face waiting weeks or months in Mexico while they apply for asylum in the US, which is processing about 100 claims a day at the San Diego crossing.

The demonstration Monday was meant to launch a national week of action called “Love knows no borders: a moral call for migrant justice,” which falls between Human Rights Day on Monday, and International Migrants’ Day on 18 December, the group said.

“Showing up to welcome and bless children, mothers and fathers seeking asylum from very difficult and dehumanizing circumstances is the right and humane thing to do,” said Bishop Minerva G Carcano, from the San Francisco Area United Methodist Church. “How we act in these moments determines who we will become as a nation.”

The group is calling on Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.





