US border police against refugees: criticism of Biden government grows

As of: 09/21/2021 10:39 p.m.

The US government comes under domestic political pressure after mounted border guards were used against refugees. Both Vice President Harris and Democratic leaders condemned the incidents in harsh words.

Recordings of US border guards on horseback against migrants in the border town of Del Rio have sparked great outrage and troubled the US government. “People should never be treated this way,” said US Vice President Kamala Harris, referring to photos and videos showing mounted US border guards apparently rounding up migrants.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was dismayed. The recordings “deeply disturbed” and “horrified” him, Mayorkas said in an interview with the news channel CNN. This runs counter to all values ​​that the US authorities wanted to convey to their staff. He said that an investigation into the incidents was ongoing.

Dealing with migrants on the US southern border met with outrage

Claudia Buckenmaier, ARD Washington, daily news 5:00 p.m., 21.9.2021

Pressure from the parliamentary chambers

The day before, the minister had downplayed the police actions during a visit to South Texas. He couldn’t see anything obviously wrong in photos and videos, Majorkas said at a press conference.

In parliament, too, prominent democrats reacted to the events with outrage. The Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, called on him to end the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump. “Images of Haitian migrants being hit by whips and other forms of physical violence are completely unacceptable,” said Schumer. In the pictures “the stomach turns”. Corresponding behavior must be changed and punished.

“This is an eyesore on our country,” said Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Human rights organizations condemned the US government’s actions.

USA rely on mass deportations

Thousands of Haitians are currently trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States. At times, more than 15,000 people waited under a bridge in the Texas border town of Del Rio. The US has already brought more than 6,000 refugees from the camp under the border bridge that they had set up there. Many have already been returned to their homeland in several deportation flights, and from Wednesday the number of flights to Haiti is to be increased to seven a day.

According to media reports, Mexico has also started to fly Haitians out of the border region – albeit to the south of the country. The Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard called for a regional refugee agreement. He made a corresponding proposal to his US colleague Antony Blinken in a phone call.

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