The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security declined to investigate the Border Patrol agents on horseback who were falsely accused of “whipping” migrants.
The DHS said in a statement this week that its parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would be handling the investigation into the agents’ behavior because the DHS Office Inspector General turned down the case, which is an indication the inspector general did not consider the allegations to have merit.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered the investigation into the agents after several reports falsely accused them of using their horses’ reins as whips against Haitian migrants who were illegally crossing the southern border. It has been nearly two months since Mayorkas launched the investigation, even though he promised it would be concluded in “a matter of days, not weeks.”
Even after photographs documenting the agents’ confrontation with migrants proved they did not act violently towards the migrants, the Biden administration accused the agents of acting egregiously. Biden even vowed that “those people will pay.”
Biden’s comments upset many in Border Patrol, according to the agency’s union president.
“The agents feel like – at all levels of management, from [Customs and Border Protection] to [the Department of Homeland Security] and to the White House – that they’ve been thrown under the bus because no investigation has been completed, yet you’re hearing the president say these people will pay,” National Border Patrol Council Vice President Jon Anfinsen said in September.
Anfinsen said the Biden administration only villainized Border Patrol because it helped them distract from the real problem: the worsening immigration crisis.
“Now there’s an incident where they can detract from the fact that they weren’t paying attention,” he said. “They can point the blame at these agents on the ground and deflect any blame … onto these agents who were doing their job.”
