(Headline USA) Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., claimed that immigration officers’ treatment of Haitian migrants trying to cross the southern border was “worse than slavery.”
Citing fake reports that alleged Border Patrol agents on horseback were “whipping” Haitian migrants, Waters blasted the Biden administration for enabling “the cowboys who were running down Haitians and using their reins to whip them.”
“What we witnessed takes us back hundreds of years. What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery,” Waters said on Wednesday. “Cowboys with their reins, again, whipping Black people, Haitians, into the water where they’re scrambling and falling down when all they’re trying to do is escape from violence in their country.”
Congressman Maxine Waters just said that border patrol agents trying to restrict illegal immigrants from illegally entering our country was worse than slavery. pic.twitter.com/OQ9CZUMRhp
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 22, 2021
Images of Border Patrol agents trying to deter Haitian migrants from crossing into the country went viral this week, leading the White House to condemn their tactics as “horrific.”
However, closer inspection of the images showed that agents were not “whipping” migrants.
They were just holding on to the reins of their horses and circling them to keep migrants from getting too close to the horses, immigration officials explained.
“They were not whipping anyone,” National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto told Fox News.
“They don’t carry whips,” he added. “They don’t get assigned whips. What they do is a training technique that has been shown to them to make sure that no one takes over their horse. It was to protect the horse, to protect the rider, and to protect the individual that was trying to cause chaos and knock down that rider from that horse.”
Despite this, Waters doubled down, claiming the agents were treating Haitian migrants “like animals.”
Haitians fleeing violence & the lack of a credible government in Haiti are being treated like animals. U.S. government cowboys on horses used whips on Haitians as they sought refuge. Why are we following the Trump policies? This horrendous treatment of Haitians must STOP NOW.
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) September 21, 2021