Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkis fielded tough questioning Thursday from Border Patrol agents meeting near El Paso, Texas.
Some agents reportedly expressed frustration with Biden administration policies that have produced record surges of illegal aliens crossing the southern border. Mayorkas also faced blowback over suspending mounted agents whom he reportedly accused of assaulting Haitians trying to cross the Rio Grande River into Texas.
The Conservative Brief further reported:
According to an agent who spoke to The Daily Caller, the heated meeting took place when Mayorkas recently visited a border station in El Paso, Texas:
The agent, who requested anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak, said a colleague confronted Mayorkas and accused him of making empty promises about helping with the surge in illegal immigration, falsely asserting that the border is “secure” and lambasting the force. Mayorkas made the visit to El Paso on Tuesday as the area is overwhelmed by a recent surge in illegal immigrants reaching the U.S.-Mexican border and as the expected end of Title 42, the public health expulsion order, threatens to make matters even worse.
The confrontation was first reported by the Washington Examiner, which took place during a meeting with a small group of senior agents along with rank-and-file members to talk about the rise in suicides within the agency. That outlet quoted three government sources.
During the meeting, according to the reports, at least one agent asked the DHS boss why he had not fulfilled their requests for additional security gear at the border and instead, chose publicly to slander them, perhaps over an incident involving Haitian migrants and agents on horseback who were falsely accused of whipping them.
“You came here six months ago,” the agent said, who recalled the agent’s confrontation with Mayorkas. “You offered us cameras, they were going to run about $2 million. And you said that you were going to get it for us and upon you departing we found out that the money is not going to be allocated until two more years.”
“You went to Del Rio, you expressed yourself and you talked bad about the Border Patrol,” the agent who confronted Mayorkas said, according to the source in the room.
“He started then going back and forth with the agent. He said, ‘I never said,’” the agent relayed.
At that point, a senior agent in the room attempted to intervene, but the agent who was confronting Mayorkas would not back down, according to The Daily Caller’s sources.
“No, let him respond. He’s here, he wants to be here. Now he has to answer the questions that we got for him no matter how tough they are,” the agent said, according to sources. “We’re gonna be respectful. We’re not gonna yell. We’re gonna treat you with the respect, but we’re gonna expect answers. You’re not gonna get away with pandering.”
In September, Mayorkas suspended the agents who were on horseback after they were accused — again, falsely — by left-leaning media figures and Democrats of using “whips” and reins to assail Haitian migrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
“Border Patrol agents seen on horseback confronting Haitian refugees have been removed from regular duty during an investigation into their actions, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told lawmakers Wednesday,” Newsmax reported Wednesday.
“Videos showed law enforcement officers on horseback using aggressive tactics when confronting migrants in Del Rio, Texas. Some agents appeared to be swinging long reins,” the outlet continued, though Homeland Security officials have said the agents were adhering to their training and attempting to keep the migrants away from horses so they did not get injured.”
Mayorkas, in testimony before the House and the Senate that month, decried the agents’ behavior, saying he was “horrified” by what he saw in the media, telling Democrats he shared their outrage while pledging to “pull no punches” in ensuring agents would be disciplined if found to have violated their training and enforcement rules.
“The individuals, during the pendency of the investigation, are not conducting law enforcement duties to interact with migrants, but rather are conducting administrative duties,” said Mayorkas, who didn’t say how many agents were being investigated.
“I was horrified by what I saw. We will let the investigation run its course, but the pictures that I observed troubled me profoundly,” Mayorkas told CNN. “One cannot weaponize a horse to aggressively attack a child. That is unacceptable. That is not what our policies and our training require. … We will not tolerate mistreatment.”
“To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped – it’s outrageous,” President Biden told a press conference.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.
