Border Patrol agents are enraged after it was revealed that the Department of Homeland Security is planning to punish multiple agents who were involved in the since-debunked allegations that they whipped Haitian migrants in Del Rio last year, exacerbating already low morale among agents who see the investigation as a politicized attempt to deliver a result for the White House.
“What we’re seeing right now is the executive branch weaponizing the Office of Professional Responsibility to go after what President Biden perceives as political opponents. He doesn’t like the Border Patrol. He has never liked the mission of the Border Patrol. And now he is going after these agents because he panders to open border activists. This should never happen in this country.” said National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.
DHS is planning to reprimand several mounted Border Patrol agents who were engaged in a September incident involving Haitian migrants at the US-Mexico border, in which some Democrats and immigration activists wrongly claimed they witnessed agents beating Haitian detainees.
According to a government source, a statement on the subject is likely in the coming days. The agents are anticipated to be disciplined for administrative infractions rather than criminal wrongdoing, which the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) previously ruled out.
DHS will present its proposed discipline to the agents, who will then have the opportunity to reply and either accept or dispute the discipline.
In September, during the Haitian immigration crisis in Del Rio, more than 10,000 people congregated beneath the area’s International Bridge, igniting the debate. As the situation escalated, operatives on horseback were dispatched to maintain control.
Agents were seen on Twitter attempting to prevent migrants from entering the United States, and in one case seizing a migrants’ shirt. Some media sources and Democratic politicians mistook the agents’ split reins, which they use and twist to control and lead the horse, and wrongly claimed the officers were using whips on the migrants, escalating the scandal.
Vice President Harris and President Biden both spoke out against the agents, with Biden adding to the pressure on the beleaguered officers by repeating the bogus charges of whipping and previewing the investigation’s findings.
Border Patrol personnel, whose morale is already low due to having to cope with the tremendous ongoing issue at the southern border, believe their fellow officers are being thrown under the bus because officials felt compelled to give a result nine months after the event.
