EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Venezuelan migrants huddled on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande say soldiers fired shots in their direction early Wednesday because they would not disperse.

The alleged incident took place in Juarez yards away from a building where, a few hours later, the U.S. ambassador and a top-level State Department official praised Mexico for its cooperation on managing the border more humanely.

“It was 11:30 or midnight. We were under the bridge where we have been sleeping for a month and a half now when the Mexican army came to threaten us, to insult us, to treat us like dogs and to kick the men and to run us off,” said Zuley Briseno, a Venezuelan migrant who says she witnessed the incident. “They shot at us without caring there were pregnant women and children.”

Border Report reached out for comment and is awaiting a response from the Mexican army garrison in Juarez and from officials at the Migrant Assistance Center in Juarez where U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Verma spoke on Wednesday.

Briseno said shots rang out in the railroad bridge west of the Paso del Norte International Bridge where the migrants were gathered. Social media videos show Mexican National Guard soldiers shooting at the ground and railroad tracks near the migrants. A man in civilian clothing apparently aiming a pistol at a group of migrants sitting down, the video shows.

“We were just resting when the police came and the train security train came, and they started to run us off and kick us. One of the officials fired shots, sent (debris flying) and look how they left me,” said Ivan Gutierrez, a Venezuelan migrant who said he was injured on his shoulder by flying debris. “They are wretches, some of them.”

A Juarez newspaper linked to a cell phone video where eight to nine shots can be heard as migrants mill about in confusion. The newspaper reports Mexican soldiers returned to the scene around 2 a.m. on Wednesday to retrieve spent ammo shells.

“We are scared because it’s not normal that the Mexican army attacks us in that manner,” said Andrew, another Venezuelan migrant who was at the bridge at the time of the incident. The migrant acknowledged some of his peers were on the train tracks when the army and Mexican railroad police came.

Andrew said he heart seven shots fired during the melee. “There were children, there were families and they attacked us. We are not (here) making any protests, we just want to go join our relatives where they are in the United States.”

John Barrera, another member of the group, said he hopes the Biden administration resumes processing migrants who come in between ports of entry who, like himself, had not heard of mandatory online appointments before coming to the border and need help understanding the process.

“God willing, they will let us come in legally to achieve our American Dream. I hope they stop bothering us (in Mexico) because we are living a hard life, and ugly life here,” he said.

Juarez freelance photojournalists Angel Cervantes and Roberto Delgado contributed to this report.