Border Patrol agents did not “whip” Haitian migrants in a viral incident that sparked outrage last September, but they did use “unnecessary force” while corralling the group, an internal report released Friday said.
The report, which totaled 511 pages, said an investigation found “no evidence” that agents on horseback struck migrants with reins while patrolling the border near Del Rio, Texas. That finding contradicts what many—including President Joe Biden—believed at the time of the incident, which sent field agents to administrative duty and sparked an internal investigation.
“It’s horrible, what you saw. To see people like they did, with horses, running them over, people being strapped, it’s outrageous,” Biden said last September. “Those people will pay.”
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While there was no whipping, the report doesn’t exactly clear the agents involved—or their supervisors—of wrongdoing.
Instead, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said in a statement that “failures at multiple levels of the agency, a lack of appropriate policies and training, and unprofessional and dangerous behavior by several individual agents” were uncovered during the investigation.
Border Patrol singled out one agent for using “derogatory and vulgar” language while also putting a child at risk with the horse he was mounted on.
“Hey! This is why your country’s shit. You use your women for this,” the agent, who was not identified, was heard yelling in one viral video captured by Al Jazeera.
Friday’s report said Border Patrol agents were not briefed on the agency’s objectives when they decided to help Texas officials maintain an influx of Haitian migrants crossing into the state last September.
Several of the migrants involved in the viral incident had already crossed the border into the U.S. and were issued tickets by Border Patrol that indicated they were awaiting processing, the report said.
The Haitians were given permission to buy food and supplies for their families in Mexico, the report said, and the group in the viral incident was simply returning with provisions when mounted agents swarmed them, which explains why so many were holding bags of food as they were corralled.
United States Border Patrol agents on horseback look on as Haitian migrants sit on the river bank near an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on September 19, 2021
AFP via GettyThe report said these agents “used force or the threat of force to drive migrants back into the Rio Grande River despite the fact they were well within the territorial boundary of the United States.”
During a news conference Friday, Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Chris Magnus said his agency has convened a review panel to determine disciplinary measures against four agents, but he declined to give specifics on what sort of punishment they could face.
“Not everyone’s going to like all the findings, but the investigation was comprehensive and fair,” Magnus said.
