‘Beyond an embarrassment.’ Biden promises consequences for treatment of Haitian migrants
President Joe Biden on Friday said images of Border Patrol agents on horseback who appeared to be swinging reins or ropes at Haitian migrants in Texas were “beyond an embarrassment.”
In his first public remarks on the matter, Biden promised unspecified consequences for the agents involved and said the images from the border with Mexico damage the reputation of the United States around the world.
“Of course I take responsibility. I’m president,” Biden said. “But it was horrible what to see as you saw. To see people treated like they did. Horses barely running them over and people being strapped. It’s outrageous. I promise you those people will pay.”
Biden pointed to the investigation the Department of Homeland Security launched in the wake of the outcry over the images. DHS has also suspended the use of horse patrols in Del Rio, Texas.
“There will be consequences. There will be consequences. It’s an embarrassment. 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,” Biden said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas initially defended the agents, but within hours launched an expedited investigation and alerted the agency’s inspector general to the events.
DHS has since placed the agents on administrative leave. The agency also announced Friday that it has fully cleared the camp of thousands of migrants that had gathered under the Del Rio International Bridge.
Mayorkas said when he made comments on Monday that it was possible the agents were attempting to steady their horses, he had not seen the images, which he saw for the first time on a flight from Del Rio to Washington that evening.
“All of America is horrified to see what those images suggest,” Mayorkas said.
Mayorkas appeared to contradict Biden’s promise of consequences when he repeatedly said he would not make any conclusions about the pending investigation before it was completed.
“I will not prejudge the facts. I do not in any way want to impair the integrity of the investigative process,” Mayorkas said.
Asked whether the president had prejudged the results of the investigation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Biden’s comments “a very human and visceral response.” But she affirmed that the DHS investigation will determine the consequences.
“The president was not prejudging the outcome of an investigation, either. The president was responding from his heart and responding to seeing horrific photos that we have seen over the last several days,” Psaki said.
DEMOCRATS PRESSURE BIDEN
The Biden administration has been seeking to address fierce criticisms from civil rights leaders, immigration advocates and Capitol Hill Democrats who have drawn comparisons to immigration policies under former President Donald Trump and invoked historical racial abuses.
“What we witnessed takes us back hundreds of years. What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Thursday. “Cowboys — with their reins, again — whipping Black people, Haitians, into the water where they’re scrambling and falling down when all they’re trying to do is escape from violence in their country.”
Congressional Republicans, on the other hand, have defended the Border Patrol amid the uproar and have accused the Biden administration of failing to give agents the resources needed to respond to a surge in migration.
“I hope what people do is actually look at the state of the Border Patrol right now,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told McClatchy earlier this week. “They’re in a state of crisis right now. ... Morale is collapsing. Frankly, they’re spread so thin they can’t do their job.”
In a letter to Biden, several prominent Haitian-American leaders — including Patrick Gaspard, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa who recently became president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress — called on the president to instruct Mayorkas to restrain U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
They also demanded “an immediate stop to the deportation of Haitians back to Haiti.”
“The crisis at the border brings with it opportunities for your administration to engage with the Haitian diaspora to tackle some of the fundamental issues that have resulted in so many Haitian migrants risking their lives to get to the border,” the letter said. “US policy has supported a variety of corrupt dictatorships in Haiti, with the result that Haitians are forced to flee to find a better life.”
Citing the recent resignation of U.S. envoy to Haiti Daniel Foote, the letter said it “underscored what Haitians have always known and that is how the ‘deeply flawed’ US policy towards Haiti has consistently led to ‘catastrophic’ results.”
Gaspard, who was among a group of faith leaders who joined civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton in Del Rio on Thursday, said he saw thousands of Haitians camped at the border in “subhuman conditions.”
The delegation was given rare access to the encampment under the bridge by DHS, which has not allowed journalists to visit. The group toured the medical facility and talked to some of the migrants through an interpreter about the crisis.
“It was heart-wrenching to see the desperation of the families in these conditions,” Sharpton said. “The refugees expressed to me through an interpreter their journey of fleeing violence, destruction, and the economic devastation due to the earthquake.
“We have called for a full investigation of the situation, for Border Patrol to be held accountable for these atrocities, along with immediate clarity and action from the Administration on their Asylum policies,” he added. “The president must transform good rhetoric to good policy.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 7:55 AM with the headline "‘Beyond an embarrassment.’ Biden promises consequences for treatment of Haitian migrants."
