Border Patrol agents in Texas are under fire after a video was released of them seemingly beating back Haitians who illegally entered the US and gathered just across the US/Mexico border.
Current Events
For weeks, thousands of Haitian immigrants have crossed the Rio Grande into the US and bedded down under a viaduct in Del Rio, Texas to await either deportation or asylum. Many of the migrants traveled from Central America, where powerful natural disasters, a dysfunctional government, and few economic opportunities in the midst of the COVID pandemic have prompted them to seek refuge in America. Others traveled from Haiti, following a devastating earthquake and the assassination of their president.
On Tuesday, a video captured over the weekend showed Border Patrol agents on horseback swinging lariats (a rope used by horse riders) in an attempt to block the passage of the Haitian border-crossers. Their actions have since fueled concerns that the agents were whipping or threatening to whip the desperate migrants.
Vice-President Kamala Harris has since called on the Department of Homeland Security to immediately investigate Border Patrol protocol.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the video “horrific,” saying, “I don’t think anyone seeing that footage would think it was acceptable or appropriate.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chair’s the House Homeland Security committee, called the mistreatment of Haitian migrants “disturbing” and contrary to US values.
“I call on [DHS] Secretary Mayorkas to take immediate action to hold those responsible accountable and ensure that all migrants are treated in accordance with the law and basic decency, as this Administration has promised to do since day one,” the congressman said.
Asylum advocates also weighed in.
“Border Patrol must end the use of horse-mounted agents in Del Rio, Texas,” the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said. “The images circulating from the border are vile and unacceptable.”
Indeed, the video is vile, graphic, and disturbing. However, the difficult question is this: are we seeing violence and physical contact, or are we seeing an exercise in preserving order?
The “perception” of the video is that the Border Patrol agents physically beat the Haitian migrants. If this is true, there should be a complete investigation and a total overhaul of DHS policy. However, what if this is not true? What if the agents opted to mount horses and maintain order among the thousands of Haitians similar to the way local police mount horses to maintain crowd control?
With the unexpected arrival of more than 10 thousand Haitian migrants combined with their makeshift construction of a massive encampment just across the Del Rio border, the Department of Homeland Security was correct to send hundreds of Border Patrol agents to the area. They were also correct to maintain safety and order while the DHS processed the migrants for transport back to their country or for asylum.
However, did the agents physically harm anyone? Or, are our reactions to the video a conversation in perception versus reality?
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USA Today: A camp of over 10,000 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande at a low point between Ciudad Acuña, Mexico and Del Rio, Texas, have been waiting beneath the international bridge in Del Rio to open an asylum claim. U.S. and Mexican officials warned Sunday that those in the camp would be deported back to Haiti. Horace Campbell, professor of African American Studies and Political Science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University called the expulsion of Haitians “inhumane” and “criminal.” “The economic conditions in Haiti since 2010 have been unspeakable,” said Campbell, referring to a 2010 earthquake that devastated the island nation. More recently, the country has seen a presidential assassination and another powerful earthquake just this year, leaving the nation’s economy and government in dire conditions. “What the United States government is doing is unspeakable given the crisis in Haiti …. as one person said, it amounts to something… Read more »