During the White House press briefing on Thursday, Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas corrected April Ryan, a White House press correspondent for The Grio, when asked about an incident involving Border Patrol agents falsely accused of whipping migrants with horse reins.
In September 2022, photos and video emerged showing Border Patrol agents purportedly using horse reins to whip Haitian migrants along the Mexican border.
After a host of mainstream media outlets parroted the “whipping” charge, President Joe Biden responded by calling the incident “outrageous.”
“I promise you those people will pay,” Biden said of the Border Patrol agents depicted.
However, a later investigation by DHS found no evidence supporting the allegations and ruled that the imagery was misleading. As a former mounted Border Patrol supervisor explained to National Review at the time, the agents were not whipping the migrants, they were waving their reins as a kind of failsafe tactic used to get horses to move in the direction their riders want them to.
Ryan seemed unaware of the resolution to the viral hoax during Thursday’s briefing, referencing Haitian migrants who were “whipped” by Border Patrol in a question to Mayorkas.
“Well, let me just correct you right there, because actually, the investigation concluded that the whipping did not occur,” Mayorkas said.
“Maybe either the video or the picture was fixed but what I saw was totally different,” Ryan says apologetically.
“I’m going to leave you as corrected,” the Secretary then responds.
Later in the briefing, Mayorkas sought to reassure Americans that the Biden administration had made all necessary precautions ahead of Title 42’s expiration.
“We prepared for this moment for almost two years, and our plan will deliver results,” he told reporters. “It will take time for those results to be fully realized and it is essential that we all take this into account.”
Mayorkas also added a message to smugglers reportedly sowing misinformation that America’s border would be open to migrants and asylum seekers.
“Smugglers have been long hard at work spreading false information that the border will be open. They are lying. To people who are thinking of making the journey to our southern border, know this — smugglers care only about profits, not people. Do not risk your life and your life savings only to be removed from the United States if and when you arrive here.”
Mayorkas’s comments come after Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that Biden has no intention of visiting the Southern border to evaluate the post-Title 42 situation.
“I don’t have any trips to preview for you,” the press secretary said in response to a question from the White House press corps. “As you know, the president has gone to the border more than once.”
On Wednesday, the White House introduced sweeping measures aimed at curbing the anticipated influx of illegal migrants.
Moving forward, the Biden administration will begin denying entry to all migrants who do not first seek asylum in a transit country or apply for protection in America using an online form before arriving at the border. Moreover, Venezuelan, Haitian, Cuban, and Nicaraguan nationals caught illegally crossing the Southern border will be deported back to Mexico.
The overhaul, though, has not reassured many Texas border towns – including Brownsville, Laredo, and El Paso – all of whom have preemptively declared a state of emergency as 35,000 migrants have congregated in Juarez and 15,000 have gathered in Tijuana awaiting midnight.