Defense & National Security — CBP to discipline Border Patrol agentsFour Border Patrol agents will face disciplinary action after agents on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, last year corralled Haitian migrants seeking to cross into the U.S.
We’ll dive into the findings of the investigation into what happened. Plus, we’ll talk about Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s (R) push to get exemptions from the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate approved for members of the state’s National Guard.
Agents face discipline for treatment of migrants
Four Border Patrol agents will face disciplinary action after agents on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, last year corralled Haitian migrants seeking to cross into the U.S.
A 511-page report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility found “failures at multiple levels of the agency, a lack of appropriate policies and training, and unprofessional and dangerous behavior by several individual agents,” according to a CBP statement.
A quick rewind: Images of the September incident went viral, drawing attention to the plight of some 15,000 Haitian migrants who had camped under a bridge near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The images showed officers chasing some migrants and initially raised questions about whether the agents whipped any migrants with the horses’ reins.
The report determined that agents did not strike “intentionally or otherwise, any migrant with their reins.”
‘Unsafe,’ ‘unprofessional’ behavior: The report detailed other behavior by agents on horseback, including grabbing one migrant by their shirt and spinning them around and making disparaging remarks about Haiti.
“One BPA [Border Patrol agent] acted in an unprofessional manner by yelling comments related to a migrant’s national origin and sex, stating in part, ‘Hey! You use your women? This is why your country’s shit, you use your women for this,’” the report found.
“The same BPA acted in an unsafe manner by pursuing the individual he had yelled at along the river’s edge forcing his horse to narrowly maneuver around a small child on a slanted concrete ramp.” Orders from Texas: Border Patrol agents were following orders from the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS), the report found.
“As a result of a lack of command, control, and communications,
“As a result of a lack of command, control, and communications, [Horse Patrol Unit] personnel carried out an operation at the request of TXDPS which directly contravened [U.S. Border Patrol] operational objectives and resulted in the unnecessary use of force against migrants who were attempting to reenter the United States with food,” the report found.
The reality of Del Rio: The Del Rio incident marked a turning point for the Biden administration’s border policy, highlighting a measure of chaos and confusion in federal border and immigration policy.
Among the administration’s opponents, the incident sparked cries of chaos at the border that have consistently grown and continue to dog the Biden White House and energize the far right.
A large swath of Biden’s supporters, particularly in the immigrant advocacy community, saw a violation of human rights that essentially went unpunished.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/overnights/3550678-defense-national-security-presented-by-lockheed-martin-cbp-to-discipline-border-patrol-agents/
Posted July 8