https://www.wsj.com/articles/scapegoats-at-the-texas-border-joe-biden-administration-alejandro-mayorkas-11632433558?mod=opinion_lead_pos3
At last the Biden Administration is furious about tumult on the southern border. Not about the surge of migrants, mind you. The White House is using a single episode to scapegoat law enforcement and deflect criticism from its immigration failure.
The flare-up came Monday, when Reuters published footage of mounted Border Patrol agents facing down about 200 Haitian migrants near Del Rio, Texas. The article, and several that followed, mistook the officers’ reins for whips and claimed they’d been wielded against migrants. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib denounced what she called “human rights abuses.”
It was a classic rush to judgment in the age of viral images. Yet the Biden Administration joined the pile-on against its own officers. By Tuesday Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas launched an investigation and took the officers off duty. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the actions “brutal and inappropriate” and said President Biden was “horrified.”
Perhaps investigators will conclude that the border agents used excessive force. But the Administration looks fixed on a foregone conclusion. “We are addressing this with tremendous speed and tremendous force,” Mr. Mayorkas said Wednesday. His promise that “it will be completed in days not weeks” should prompt skepticism about fairness.