When photos that at first appeared to show Border Patrol agents on horseback whipping Haitian migrants trying to cross the border illegally last September, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised there would be an investigation concluding in “days, if not weeks.”
Americans haven’t been privy to that investigation about the events in Del Rio, Texas. However, since then, we’ve discovered quite a bit about the incident. It turns out the agents weren’t “whipping” the migrants; this was merely an optical illusion in a photo that made it look like their horse reins were whips.
The photographer himself said so — publicly and emphatically. The Daily Caller reported in April that the agents were cleared of criminal misconduct.
(The Western Journal was quick to detail why the charges of “whipping” were little more than fake news and how the agents were being used as scapegoats by hand-wringing Democrats and a sensationalistic mainstream media. We’ll keep bringing America news and analysis you won’t hear from the mainstream media — and you can help us bring readers the truth by subscribing.)
Now, nine months into an investigation that was supposed to last days, a Fox News reporter says the agents will be hit with “administrative violations” by the DHS.
“Per federal source, DHS is preparing to discipline multiple horseback Border Patrol agents who were accused of ‘whipping’ Haitian migrants in Del Rio last summer,” national correspondent Bill Melugin wrote in a Twitter post Tuesday.
BREAKING: Per federal source, DHS is preparing to discipline multiple horseback Border Patrol agents who were accused of “whipping” Haitian migrants in Del Rio last summer. I’m told DHS will imminently allege “administrative violations”, agents will be able to respond @FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) June 14, 2022
“I’m told DHS will imminently allege ‘administrative violations’, agents will be able to respond,” he continued.
“Per federal source, this announcement is expected to come down any day now. It’s unclear what ‘administrative violations’ the BP agents will be accused of, but they are not being accused of any criminal conduct.
“It has been nearly 9 months since this incident took place. The agents have been taken off their normal duties and have not been allowed to have contact w/ migrants since. President Biden assured the public at the time that ‘there will be consequences’ for the agents involved,” Melugin noted.
It has been nearly 9 months since this incident took place. The agents have been taken off their normal duties and have not been allowed to have contact w/ migrants since.
President Biden assured the public at the time that “there will be consequences” for the agents involved.— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) June 14, 2022
As Melugin noted, there’s no word yet on what the “administrative violations” the agents will be hit with are or whether the decision and any punishment were justified. However, given how the incident unfolded in front of the mainstream media, it’s difficult not to think the agents’ punishment was a fait accompli and that their fate was sealed the moment advocates for illegal aliens falsely accusing them of “whipping” the migrants — no matter what the agents actually did.
Let’s not forget that it wasn’t just Mayorkas who was talking tough and promising an investigation that would last “days, if not weeks.” No less than President Joe Biden promised “consequences” and swore “those people will pay.”
“Of course I take responsibility, I’m president.”
Pres. Joe Biden tells @rachelvscott the controversial handling of Haitian immigrants “sends the wrong message around the world,” claiming “there will be consequences.” https://t.co/kx01LNbaNT pic.twitter.com/o3kDDt5Giq
— ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2021
“I take responsibility. I’m president … It was horrible to see. To see people treated like they did, horses nearly running them over, people being strapped. It’s outrageous,” Biden said last September. “I promise you those people will pay… There will be consequences.”
“It’s an embarrassment, but it’s beyond an embarrassment, it’s dangerous, it’s wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world. It sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are.”
And if you weren’t a member of the administration, you got to say even crazier stuff.
Take Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters. Waters is never a stable character at the best of times, but the California lawmaker — who is black, lest we forget — actually said the incident “was worse than what we witnessed in slavery.”
“I’m unhappy, and I’m not just unhappy with the cowboys who were running down Haitians and using their reins to whip them. I’m unhappy with this administration,” Rep. Maxine Waters says at a news conference on the situation at the U.S. southern border. https://t.co/tUeqoESHTP pic.twitter.com/BuWTMs8ilf
— ABC News (@ABC) September 22, 2021
“We’re saying to the president and everybody else, you’ve got to stop this madness. And I want to know, in the first place, who’s paying these cowboys to do this work?” Waters said. “They have got to be gotten rid of.”
“They’ve got to be stopped. It cannot go on,” she added. “What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery.”
OK, then: What did we witness?
First it was the famous photo. As Fox News noted, three major U.S. networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — as well as plenty of other cable news outlets and other publications pushed the fabrication the agents were whipping the migrants despite the fact the claim was debunked.
NEW: The photographer who took the now infamous photos of mounted Border Patrol agents in Del Rio says he and his colleagues never saw agents whipping anyone and the photos are being misconstrued.
However, the false narrative is off and running. @FoxNews https://t.co/scwhoqOqYS— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 24, 2021
The photographer himself told KTSM-TV in El Paso, Texas that there weren’t whips involved: “Some of the Haitian men started running, trying to go around the horses … I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Paul Ratje said. “He was swinging [the reins], but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
Video footage from an Associated Press reporter revealed what actually happened:
Sorting through my footage from the border. I was in the river during the viral incident between a Haitian migrant and mounted CBP agent. It’s shaky – but here’s what I captured. pic.twitter.com/fnvxSU83tO
— Sarah Blake Morgan (@StorytellerSBM) September 24, 2021
What we “witnessed,” whether we want to admit it or not, is that Border Patrol agents were trying to control the chaos created at a border-crisis hotspot. The Biden administration, which refuses to crack down on illegal immigration, took it out on the agents, instead — under the false pretense they’d engaged in violence against the migrants.
When it turned out that wasn’t the case, the administration sat on that expedited “days, if not weeks” investigation for nine long months. Now, it’s prepared to quietly announce “administrative violations” against the agents.
That outcome, again, could be totally called for — and it might not be justified in the least.
Regardless, anyone who isn’t suspicious of how this is playing out hasn’t been paying attention.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
