[ad_1]
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed on Wednesday that border patrol officers accused of whipping migrants to prevent them from crossing the US border had been assigned clerical duties – while the incident made under investigation “with extraordinary speed and with tremendous force”.
Mayorkas addressed the footage of officers in Del Rio, Texas, who he said “encountered the horror of our nation properly and necessarily”, during his testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill .
“They don’t reflect who we are as a country, nor do we think they reflect who the US tariff protection is,” he said.
Mayorkas said the agency was investigating the footage, which appeared to show officers using whips to prevent Haitian migrants from crossing the Rio Grande to reach an encampment under a Texas bridge. He said the investigation was being conducted at “tremendous speed and with tremendous force” and that the results would be available in “days, not weeks”.
“I have ordered that an investigation be carried out into the events which are captured in these images,” he said. Pending the outcome of the investigation, officers were prohibited from interacting with the migrants, he said.
“We have ensured that the people during the investigation period do not perform law enforcement functions to interact with the migrants, but only perform administrative tasks,” he said.
Mayorkas has previously denied that whips were used to keep migrants on the Mexican side of the river, saying officers used long reins to control their horses.
Meanwhile, border patrol chief Raul Ortiz blamed the difficulty in distinguishing migrants from smugglers as people move by the river.
[ad_2]
Source link