While the United States and Mexico continue with the deportation of migrants, mostly Haitians, camped under and around a bridge that connects the two countries, President Joe Biden saw on Tuesday (21) criticism for the humanitarian crisis rise in tone – not only because of the decision to remove the approximately 12 thousand people from the site, but also because of images that show signs of excesses during this work.
In these records, Border Patrol agents appear on horseback trying to grab migrants in the Rio Grande area and use the animals to push them back to Mexico, at times shouting curses.
In one photo, an agent on horseback grabs a migrant by the shirt on the American side of the river. Photojournalist Paul Ratje, who captured the image, described the agent carrying something like a whip, but some journalists and observers said the object would be the horse’s reins.
On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris called the images “awful” and demanded an investigation into the matter. “What I saw was those individuals on horseback, treating human beings that way, it’s horrible. And I totally support what’s happening right now, which is a thorough investigation into exactly what’s going on there,” Harris said.
Also on Tuesday, the Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, said he was “horrified”, in a change of attitude compared to the day before, when he announced the investigation and said that the press was “assuming facts that have not yet have been determined”.
“I will let the investigation run its course. But the photos I looked at disturbed me deeply. This challenges all the values we seek to instill in our people,” Mayorkas told CNN Tuesday, while defending the deportations. “I in no way belittle the humanitarian issue that this represents, but I want to make it clear that we have a plan to deal with this, respecting the needs of individuals, and we are executing that plan,” he argued.
Criticism from Biden’s allies continued in the Senate, where Democratic leader Chuck Schumer urged the president to end the mass deportations of Haitian migrants. “I urge President Biden to immediately stop these expulsions and end this Title 42 policy on our southern border. We cannot continue with these hateful and xenophobic policies of (former President Donald) Trump, which disregard our refugee laws,” said Schumer.
Title 42, mentioned by the senator, is a mechanism that allows for the rapid expulsion of the majority of illegal immigrants who are caught crossing the US-Mexico border, on the grounds of preventing the spread of Covid-19 in detention facilities. Created during the Trump administration, in March 2020, it was one of the migratory policies of the predecessor maintained by Biden.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Commissioner Filippo Grandi said on Tuesday that the mass deportations of Haitians could infringe international law. In a statement, he called for a halt to Title 42 evictions, claiming they “deny most people arriving at the US southwestern land border any opportunity to seek asylum.”
source https://pledgetimes.com/criticism-increases-and-bidens-border-challenge-gets-worse/
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