Border Patrol agents confronting Haitian refugees in viral footage horrifies Biden administration
Movies taken by Al Jazeera and Reuters seem to indicate legislation enforcement officers on horseback utilizing aggressive ways when confronting migrants, who’re largely Haitian, to stop them from crossing into the US.
At one level within the Reuters video, an officer’s horse almost prices into one of many migrants, who falls again and into the water. That video exhibits the officers on the water’s edge, twirling the lengthy reins as migrants crossed the border on the US shoreline of the Rio Grande. Then, because the legislation enforcement officers try and corral the migrants, one of many officers seems to whirl the horse reins close to one of many migrants.
Vice President Kamala Harris known as the pictures “horrible” and stated she helps an investigation into the matter.
“What I noticed depicted about these people on horseback, treating human beings the best way they have been, is horrible. And I absolutely assist what is going on proper now, which is a radical investigation into precisely what’s going on there,” Harris stated on Tuesday.
“However human beings ought to by no means be handled that approach and I’m deeply troubled by it and I am going to even be speaking with (Division of Homeland Safety) Secretary (Alejandro) Mayorkas later as we speak about it,” Harris added.
The migrants are situated at a short lived web site beneath the Del Rio Worldwide Bridge in Texas as they wait to be processed by US immigration authorities. They sleep within the filth, surrounded by rising piles of rubbish, uncovered to the weather and with out a lot meals and water, in hopes of being processed by the overwhelmed US Border Patrol.
Earlier Tuesday, Mayorkas stated he was “horrified” by the scenario.
“I used to be horrified by what I noticed,” Mayorkas informed CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day.” “I will let the investigation run its course. However the photos that I noticed troubled me profoundly. That defies all the values that we search to instill in our folks.”
Mayorkas introduced Monday that division would examine the scenario. When requested by Keilar if it was a “disaster,” he known as it a “heartbreaking scenario” and a “super problem.”
“I, on no account, diminish the humane situation that it presents, however I need to be clear that we do have a plan to deal with it, respecting the wants of the people and we’re executing on that plan,” he stated.
Mayorkas stated US authorities have “moved roughly 4,000, maybe greater than 4,000 migrants, from beneath that bridge already,” including that they’re shifting extra migrants “in a short time to different processing facilities in order that we will guarantee their safety and security and the safety and security of the group.”
He added, “We anticipate to see dramatic change within the subsequent 48 to 96 hours.”
Requested about President Joe Biden’s response to the video, White Home press secretary Jen Psaki stated Tuesday he “additionally felt they have been horrific and horrible.”
Mayorkas, who on Tuesday defended using horse patrols, stated the pictures defy “all the values that we search to instill in our folks” and stated the US authorities and humanitarian organizations have been working to deal with the scenario.
“I noticed the values that we do instill in our folks in exhibition once I visited beneath the bridge and noticed them work with the American Pink Cross, the Division of Well being and Human Providers, World Central Kitchen, in addressing the wants of a weak inhabitants of migrants beneath the bridge in Del Rio,” he informed Keilar. “That displays who we’re, and any mistreatment or abuse of a person defies … our values and who we’re and what we stand for.”
This story has been up to date with extra response and background data.
CNN’s Jasmine Wright, Jason Hoffman, Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands, Betsy Klein, Paul LeBlanc and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.
