This is a bombshell and certainly, heads should roll at the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas publicly condemned Border Patrol agents accused of “whipping” Haitian migrants, but the truth is they knew that those accusations were not true.
We know that emails were obtained by the Heritage Foundation that indicates that Marsha Espinosa, assistant secretary of DHS public affairs, emailed Mayorkas with information that went against the “whipping” narrative.
To be more specific, Espinosa relayed a news story in which the photographer behind the telling photos, Paul Ratje, said the accepted narrative was wrong. Espinosa’s email was sent at 12:05 p.m on Sept. 24, 2021.
Yet that same afternoon, Mayorkas was advancing the clearly false narrative. He said at the White House press briefing: “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.”
The email was sent two hours after President Joe Biden threatened the Border Patrol agents saying, “It was horrible [what] you saw. To see people treated like they did [sic]. Horses nearly running people over and people being strapped. It’s outrageous. I promise you those people will pay. They will be investigated. There will be consequences.”
Mayorkas promised that there would be a quick investigation into the mounted Border Patrol agents. But more than one year after the incident, the investigation remains ongoing.
The Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility released a report in July saying that the Border Patrol agents did not “whip” Haitian migrants.
After the news of the email broke Wednesday morning, Republican lawmakers reiterated calls for Mayorkas to resign or be impeached.
NEW: Email reveals DHS Secretary Mayorkas was alerted by DHS' top public affairs official that the "whipping" narrative behind horseback BP photos wasn't true, but at a WH press conference 2.5 hours later, he didn't refute that narrative, instead calling the images "horrifying". pic.twitter.com/Qyfy2NBkNo
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 12, 2022
