US Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas said images of what appeared to be Border Patrol agents on horseback rounding up migrants trying to cross the southern border “horrified” him.
But he stopped short of calling the new influx of migrants there a crisis.
Mayorkas told CNN that “any mistreatment or abuse of a migrant is unacceptable” and added, “the pictures that I’ve observed troubled me profoundly”. But he wouldn’t explicitly say whether they reflected mistreatment or abuse, deferring instead to a promised investigation.
“That defies all of the values that we seek to instil in our people,” Mayorkas said, adding that the department will address the situation “with full force” after the investigation is complete.
The Office of Professional Responsibility is leading the investigation, and will have personnel on the ground full-time monitoring the situation in Del Rio, Texas.
The border town has seen an influx of thousands of Haitian migrants fleeing an unstable situation in their home country and attempting to enter the US through Mexico.
More than 6,000 Haitians and other migrants have been removed from an encampment in Del Rio, and Mayorkas predicted a “dramatic change” in the number of migrants there within the next two to four days as it continues the removal process.
The latest increase in migration at the border has prompted Republicans to renew attacks on Democrats for what they say is a failure to address a crisis at the US border.
But on CNN, Mayorkas declined to call the situation a “crisis”, saying only that it’s a “heart-breaking situation” and a “tremendous challenge”.
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Watch: warning shocking footage
Related: Watch: Agents round people up on horseback as US launches mass expulsion of Haitians