Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas publicly condemned Border Patrol agents accused of “whipping” Haitian migrants despite being informed that those accusations were not true.
What is happening now?
Emails obtained by the Heritage Foundation show that Marsha Espinosa, assistant secretary of DHS public affairs, emailed Mayorkas with information casting doubt on the “whipping” narrative.
Our entire nation saw horrifying images that do not reflect who we are, who we aspire to be, or the integrity and values of our truly heroic personnel in the Department of Homeland Security.
The investigation into what occurred has not yet concluded. We know that those images painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism.
Moreover, Espinosa’s email was sent just two hours after President Joe Biden threatened the Border Patrol agents.
“It was horrible [what] you saw. To see people treated like they did [sic]. Horses nearly running people over and people being strapped,” the president said on the morning of Sept. 24, 2021. “It’s outrageous. I promise you those people will pay. They will be investigated. There will be consequences.”
What about the investigation?
Mayorkas promised a swift investigation into the mounted Border Patrol agents. But more than one year after the incident, the investigation remains ongoing, Fox News noted.
The Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility released a report in July confirming that Border Patrol agents did not, in fact, “whip” Haitian migrants.
CBP said, however, the investigation discovered “failures at multiple levels of the agency, a lack of appropriate policies and training, and unprofessional and dangerous behavior by several individual agents.”
After the news of the email broke Wednesday morning, Republican lawmakers reiterated calls for Mayorkas to resign or be impeached.