The Biden administration is using horse patrol incidents at the U.S.-Mexico border to deflect the immigration crisis, the head of the Border Patrol union told Fox News on Thursday.
“They know that what is taking place under the bridge is very embarrassing to them, so they are trying to deflect,” said Brandon Judd, head of the National Border Patrol Council. “That’s the administration trying to deflect off themselves for their failures which led to the catastrophe that’s taking place under the bridge.”
Thousands of migrants have crossed into the U.S. and set up camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, as they wait to be processed by Customs and Border Protection.
The Department of Homeland Security announced earlier Thursday that it was demobilizing the horse patrols temporarily after video showed some being aggressive when confronting the migrants. Some agents appeared to be swinging long reins.
Judd told Fox News that no migrants were hit or injured in the incidents and that agents were not using the horse reins as whips.
“What they were holding were reins, they were not whips, those reins are used to control the horses,” he said. “The agents also have to protect the migrants from the horses. … They can’t let them [get too] close. … But they [Border Patrol agents on horseback] do not hit them, nor were any of those migrants hit by any object, let alone by a whip or a rein.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday he was ”horrified” by what he saw on video, while White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ”CBS Mornings” that President Joe Biden feels the images were ”horrific and horrible.”
“I think it’s important for people to know that’s not who we are, that’s not who the Biden-Harris administration is, and we’re going to absolutely pursue that investigation and get to the bottom of what happened here,” she said.
According to Judd, Mayorkas said what he said because ”he has to toe the line or he’s out of a job, so of course he’s going to say what the White House wants him to say once they’ve made their official statement.”
Judd also called for an investigation of the incidents.
“I know that it’s going to show there is no wrongdoing, there was no policy violation, they did not hit any one of the migrants, none of the migrants were injured in that incident and they were deployed to do exactly what they did; they followed their training, the same training being given to all horse patrol agents under the Biden administration,” he said.
