AUSTIN, Texas — The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General did not investigate whether horse-mounted Border Patrol agents in Texas used whips against Haitian migrants, the agency said Tuesday, despite President Joe Biden’s initial accusation that the agents were at fault.
The DHS clarified in a statement that its parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was handling the investigation because the DHS Office of Inspector General had declined to handle the case, an indication that the inspector general did not consider the incident to be serious.
CBP investigators within its Office of Professional Responsibility have yet to reach a conclusion in an investigation into the conduct of the accused Border Patrol agents nearly two months after Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised immediate results.
Mayorkas vowed while testifying before Congress days after the Sept. 19 incident to conclude in “a matter of days, not weeks” whether agents were too aggressive and whipped a Haitian migrant attempting to illegally cross the border in Del Rio, Texas.
ILLEGAL MIGRATION AT U.S.-MEXICO BORDER SEES FIRST MAJOR DROP SINCE BIDEN TOOK OFFICE
In a highly publicized incident that took place as 20,000 Haitian migrants streamed across the Rio Grande from Mexico over a period of days in September, mounted agents were photographed and filmed attempting to prevent people from walking across. The migrants ignored verbal orders to turn around, and the mounted agents rode along the riverbank where migrants tried to get by them.
One agent was accused by third parties on social media of whipping a migrant. Before any investigation into the incident had been undertaken, top administration officials condemned the federal law enforcement agent. Later, video evidence showed that the whipping did not occur.
Biden said migrants were “being strapped” in an “outrageous” way and vowed that “those people will pay.” Mayorkas said he was “horrified” by the images, but he later admitted that he reacted “without having seen the images” before commenting to the media.
Border Patrol union and former DHS officials from the Trump administration told the Washington Examiner that the comments would make a fair investigation impossible, given that the DHS and CBP superiors of investigators called it abuse before any investigation was undertaken.
CBP, which oversees the Border Patrol, initially launched its own investigation. Once the investigation is finished, Border Patrol management will decide what discipline, if any, is appropriate. Any agent who faces discipline can respond to the accusation. Rank and file agents who pay union dues are represented by the Border Patrol’s union, the National Border Patrol Council.
Border Patrol’s horse patrol unit in Del Rio is operating daily despite White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki’s claim in September that mounted agents had been pulled from their saddles following the false abuse allegations, two officials told the Washington Examiner last month. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told federal law enforcement officials in October that agents assigned to the equestrian unit in the Del Rio region are “still operating despite the alleged ban Biden officials imposed,” according to a senior U.S. border official.
“The only change that was made was that they were pulled away from tasking on the river. No horse patrol in any sector has been disbanded. They’re still alive and well in Del Rio, just working nonriver areas,” a senior Border Patrol official in Washington told the Washington Examiner.
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Agents in Border Patrol’s horse patrol program are tasked with working in “challenging terrain, environmentally protected, and privately owned sensitive geographic locations.”
