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“I was horrified by what I saw,” Mayorkas told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day.” “I will let the investigation take its course. But the images I observed have deeply disturbed me. It defies any values that we seek to instill in our people.”
Thousands of migrants – many of them Haitians – have gathered at a temporary site under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas while waiting to be processed by US immigration authorities. They sleep in the dirt, surrounded by growing garbage piles, exposed to the elements and without much food and water, in hopes of being treated by the overwhelmed US Border Patrol.
Videos taken by Al Jazeera and Reuters appear to show law enforcement officers on horseback using aggressive tactics when confronting migrants, including authorities swinging long reins.
A Reuters video shows the officers at the water’s edge, spinning the long reins as migrants cross the border on the US coastline of the Rio Grande. At one point in the video, the officer’s horse nearly ran into one of the migrants, who fell back into the water.
In Al Jazeera’s video, a mounted law enforcement officer is seen twirling the long reins near a group of migrants. Shortly before, another individual on horseback can be heard yelling at the migrants, saying: “Are you using your wives? That’s why your country is shit, because you use your women for it.
Then, as law enforcement officers try to lock up the migrants, one of the officers appears to be spinning the reins of the horse near one of the migrants.
Mayorkas said on Monday that the department would investigate the situation. When Keilar asked him if it was a “crisis”, he called it a “heartbreaking situation” and a “huge challenge”.
“I am in no way diminishing the humanitarian problem he presents, but I want to be clear that we have a plan to address it, respecting the needs of individuals and that we are executing this plan,” he said. declared.
Mayorkas said US authorities had already “moved around 4,000, possibly more than 4,000 migrants, from under this bridge,” adding that they are moving more migrants “very quickly to other processing centers so that we can ensure their safety and security and the safety and security of the community. ”
He added: “We expect to see dramatic changes in the next 48 to 96 hours.”
Asked about President Joe Biden’s reaction to the video, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that he “also felt they were horrible and horrible.”
Mayorkas, who on Tuesday defended the use of horse-drawn patrols, said the images defied “all the values we seek to instill in our people” and said the US government and humanitarian organizations were working to remedy the situation. the situation.
“I saw the values we instill in our people when I visited under the bridge and saw them working with the American Red Cross, Department of Health and Human Services, World Central Kitchen, to respond to needs of a vulnerable population. of migrants under the Del Rio Bridge, “he told Keilar.” It reflects who we are, and any mistreatment or abuse of an individual challenges… our values and who we are and what we stand for. “
This story has been updated with additional feedback and background information.
CNN’s Jason Hoffman, Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands, Betsy Klein, Paul LeBlanc and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.
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