A group of Republican senators on Wednesday urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release its findings from the probe into Border Patrol agents who were at the center of false claims that they “whipped” Haitian migrants.
“We agree that the public deserves to know the results of this investigation,” the lawmakers, led by Sen Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“Yet, it has been more than six months since this episode occurred, and no report has been released,” they say. The other senators on the letter are Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, John Cornyn, R-Texas, Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Mike Lee, R-Utah.
The investigation centered around agents on horseback who in September attempted to block Haitian migrants from entering the U.S. via a river in Del Rio, near a massive migrant camp. The controversy began when some media outlets and Democratic lawmakers misidentified the agents’ split reins, which they use and twirl to control and direct the horse — and falsely claimed the agents were using “whips” on the migrants.
Mayorkas initially backed the agents alongside Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, but later said the images “troubled me profoundly” before adding that “one cannot weaponize a horse” against migrants.
