DHS to Punish Horse-Mounted Border Patrol Agents Accused of 'Whipping' Haitian Migrants

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will discipline the horse-mounted border patrol agents who were accused of "whipping" Haitian migrants last September.

According to New York Post, a federal source told Fox News that the DHS will offer proposals to discipline the Border Patrol agents, who will have a chance to defend themselves. The source noted that the announcement on the matter is expected in the coming days.

The charges will be "administrative violations" and not criminal, which the border agents were cleared of earlier this year.

President Joe Biden was outraged by the alleged whipping incident and promised that those responsible would be brought to justice and would "make them pay."

Many Democrats and media outlets falsely described the border agents' long reins, which they use to control their horses, as "whips."

Haitian Migrants' 'Whipping' Incident

In September, horse-mounted Border Patrol agents were photographed chasing Haitian migrants along the Rio Grande in Texas. The agents were trying to stop the migrants from entering the country.

In one case, an agent on horseback grabbed onto a migrant's shirt. The photo sparked different opinions and speculations from U.S. officials.

Some administration officials quickly condemned the agents even before an investigation had been undertaken. But witnesses and other officials defended the agents in question, with some saying that the whipping did not occur.

The photographer of the said images, Paul Ratje, earlier said he never saw the agents whipping anyone, although he saw some agents swinging the long reins of their horses. The Daily Mail reported that the DHS declined to press criminal charges last November.

The Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility (ORP) has spent the intervening months reviewing photographs and interviewing agents and witnesses.

The OPR noted that the agents whose behavior is in question would be awarded "due process" and given a chance to respond.

The White House earlier announced that agents would no longer be allowed to chase down migrants on horseback. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also reassigned the agents in the photos to desk duty.

He noted that the images "correctly and necessarily were met with our nation's horror." Mayorkas added that the photos do not reflect who the U.S. Custom and Border Protection is.

Haitian Migrants Disappear

A boat with two dozen U.S.-bound Haitian migrants has disappeared at sea. The group departed on a small motor boat from the Dominican Republic coast and headed to Puerto Rico, some 80 miles away across the treacherous Mona Passage, in early March, and that's the last anyone heard of them.

CBS News reported that it remains a mystery and source of anguish for relatives, who refuse to accept that a boat full of people could just vanish.

The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Dominican Navy said they have no record of a boat fitting that description capsizing in the passage.

The missing migrants were among the thousands of Haitians making a journey to the sea in the past few months. U.S. authorities said the voyages are frequently deadly.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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