Four Border Patrol agents to face discipline over horseback controversy
Four Border Patrol agents will face disciplinary action following an incident last year in Del Rio, Texas, in which agents on horseback 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.
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 raising 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.”
But while the report dismissed those allegations, it detailed other disturbing behavior by agents on horseback, including grabbing one migrant by their shirt and spinning them around and in another case 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.”
The report comes roughly nine months after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pledged the investigation would take “days, not weeks.”
In a press conference with reporters, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said the officers are still facing proposed disciplinary action and are afforded the chance to reply and said he would not be able to release the details until they are finalized.
Developing.
Source: TEST FEED1
