Prominent legal scholar says Mayorkas should resign for lying about migrants being whipped

Prominent legal scholar Jonathan Turley says that  Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should resign for perpetuating a false narrative about Border Patrol agents. 

"If there is any measure of decency and responsibility left in Washington, Mayorkas would resign," Turley wrote in a blog post. "Ironically, he did precisely what the agents were accused of doing. He and the President flogged these agents in public because they did not warrant any respect or consideration. To use his own words, that is something that should horrify us all."

Last year, various media outlets used images of Border Patrol agents on horseback and ran with a story that Haitian migrants were whipped and and strapped by these abusive agents. The story was quickly debunked. 

The Heritage Foundation recently received a Sept. 24, 2021 email via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that revealed that Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas knew the story was false hours before speaking at a White House press conference and he didn't challenge the false narrative, Fox News reports. 

"Our nation saw horrifying images that do not reflect who we are. We know that those images painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation's ongoing battle against systemic racism," Mayorkas said during the press conference.

President Joe Biden also ran with the story and promised an investigation would occur.  

"To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped — it's outrageous," Biden said at the press conference. "I promise you, those people will pay. There will be an investigation underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences." 

According to the information from the Heritage Foundation, the assistant secretary of DHS public affairs, Marcia Espinosa, emailed Mayorkas before he made those remarks at the press conference and informed him and other DHS leadership that the migrants were not whipped or abused and that the story was false. 

Espinosa's source was an article citing the photographer who took the pictures, who directly said that he did not see any whipping occur.  

National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd cited the email from Espinosa to Mayorkas as "smoking gun evidence." 

"It clearly shows they are willing to lie to the American people for their self interests," said Judd, according to the outlet. "They withheld facts and anytime you withhold facts from the American people… you should step down from your job. Better men step down. This clearly shows they are not better men."