Mexico City, Nov 27 (IANS): Mexico deported 98 migrants who were involved in a clash with police in Tijuana when they tried to illegally cross the border into the United States, the National Migration Institute (INM) said Monday.

The migrants were deported Sunday night, INM commissioner Gerardo Garcia Benavente explained in an interview with Televisa television, reports Efe news.

He said that the 98 migrants -- who have already been deported -- were mostly from Honduras.

Garcia Benavente recalled that the INM "has mechanisms of deportation and assisted-return that expel from (Mexican) national territory those foreigners who have violated" immigration laws.

He also clarified that the actions of the US Border Patrol, which fired tear gas at migrants who were trying to cross the border, occurred "on the US side" of the boundary.

In addition, Mexico's independent National Human Rights Commission demanded Monday that Central American migrants with the caravan "conduct themselves with respect regarding Mexican laws and refrain from causing harm or engaging in misconduct in the different communities through which they pass or where they find themselves".

US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Mexico to send migrants trying to illegally cross the US border back to their countries of origin "by any means necessary", claiming that many are "stone cold criminals".

He also threatened to "close the border permanently".