The White House is reacting to disturbing images that surfaced on Sunday of Border Patrol agents appearing to whip Haitian migrants desperately trying to cross the Rio Grande river into the United States.
'I don't know what the circumstances would be, it's obviously horrific,' Press Secretary Jen Psaki said of relevant footage from the border on Monday.
Psaki was asked about the images at her daily White House briefing.
'I've seen some of the footage, I don't have the full context, I can't imagine what context would make that appropriate but I don't have additional details,' she said.
'I don't think anyone seeing that footage would think it was acceptable or appropriate.'
She added that it was 'horrible to watch.'
A video obtained Sunday night shows Border Patrol officers on horseback, waiting on the US side of the Rio Grande as migrants - some of them families with young children - wade through chest-deep waters trying to cross.
Officers can be seen charging their horses toward migrants carrying food and supplies. Some of them are swinging what appears to be lariats.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the images 'horrific' on Monday
Other officials can be seen reaching down to violently grab migrants by the sleeve or collar.
At one point, a Border Patrol officer appears to hit a man, sending him falling back into the water.
Many of those migrants were reportedly already camped out in a makeshift tent city under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. They had crossed back to Mexico to purchase water, food and diapers in Ciudad Acuña.
Psaki was asked on Monday if there would be consequences against the officers involved.
She didn't say whether they'd lose their jobs but suggested 'they should never be able to do it again.'
The Biden administration has been grappling with an influx of migrants since the Democrat took office in January.
Migrants began flowing back into the Mexican side of the southern border on Monday from Del Rio, Texas as the Department of Homeland Security plans to ramp up deportation flights to seven per day.
A Border Patrol officer is swinging what appears to be a lariat while trying to stop Haitian migrants from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge
The devastating images were captures as migrants were trying to return to their encampment from Mexico, where they were buying much-needed supplies
U.S. border patrol officers cut the way of migrants asylum seekers as they are trying to return to the United States
Video emerged today of scores of mostly Haitian migrants making the trek back across the Rio Grande River to Mexico from the US after three flights full of migrants from the US landed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Sunday.
Up to 15,000 migrants set up camp under and around the Del Rio International Bridge, using a dam area to cross between the Mexico and US side of the border.
The massive encampment of migrants has brought up several issues, including health concerns in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic as DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed
