(Washington) US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mallorcas, said Wednesday that images showing border police personnel pushing Haitian migrants on horseback at the US-Mexico border do not reflect the identity of the United States or the United States. All that force worked.
In a shot taken by an AFP photographer, a border guard on horseback grabs a man by his shirt on the US side of the Rio Grande, the natural border between the two countries, near Del Rio, Texas.
PHOTO PAUL RATJE, Agence France-Presse Archives
A border guard on horseback grabs a man by his shirt on the American side of the Rio Grande River, the natural border between the two countries, near Del Rio, Texas, September 19, 2021.
On the other hand, he keeps a group at bay by twisting his reins, in a threatening position, to force them back towards Mexico.
Mr. Mayorkas asserted before the House Homeland Security Committee that these images “do not reflect who we are as a country or what the US Border Police are.”
He noted that he had ordered an investigation and promised quick results “within a few days, not weeks.”
The day before, he announced on Twitter that the clients identified in the photos had been assigned administrative tasks.
These photos, which spread around the world, caused an uproar in the United States, even close allies of President Joe Biden.
PHOTO JIM LO SCALZO, Associated Press
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mallorcas ordered an investigation and promised quick results “within days, not weeks”.
“These pictures make you sick,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Vice President Kamala Harris called it “appalling”, saying “human beings should not be treated this way”.
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For some, these immigrants are equal to cattle or are reminiscent of the treatment African Americans suffered by mounted police, prison guards, or slave owners.
The US government is struggling to deal with the sudden and massive influx of thousands of immigrants, including many Haitians, who have huddled for days under a bridge in the small border town of Del Rio, Texas.
The authorities began flying them home, a decision he also criticized, as the tiny Caribbean nation plunged into a political, security and humanitarian crisis.
“We have a plan to respond” to the influx of migrants, said Mr. Mayorcas. “We apply it, it takes time and we start to see results.”
Thousands of people continued to cross the Rio Grande on Wednesday in an attempt to gain asylum in the United States.
Many Haitians made the journey to the United States from countries in South America where they settled after the terrible 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation.
A Colombian official said, on Wednesday, that 19,000 immigrants, mostly Haitians, have gathered in the north of the country, on the border with Panama, to try to cross into the United States.
Alejandro Mallorcas said discussions were also underway with Latin American countries, such as Chile or Brazil, “to see if they would accept the return of Haitians who come from these countries,” describing the situation as “complicated”.
Although the US government tells immigration candidates that the borders are not open, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday accused the Biden administration and the Democratic “left wing” of encouraging immigrants and “enduring a major border security crisis.”