White House condemns Border Patrol use of whips on Haitian migrants

The White House has condemned footage of Border Patrol agents on horseback berating Haitian migrants and using whip-like lengths of cord to enforce their orders.

“I don’t think anyone seeing that footage would think it was acceptable or appropriate,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday.

More than 12,000 migrants, many of them Haitians, are waiting for asylum at the US-Mexico border. Tensions have been high at Del Rio, Texas, where Haitians have set up a makeshift refugee camp as they flee their home country’s disintegrating political situation.

On Sunday, the US began flying migrants out of the camps on repatriation flights back to Haiti.