Two months ago liberals and the media seized on images of Border Patrol agents on horseback trying to corral illegal immigrants from Haiti sneaking across the border as proof that we really are living in antebellum Mississippi.
The media whipped up hysteria on the left by claiming some of those officers were using “whips” on the illegals, when in fact the mounter Patrolmen were holding the horses’ reins.
President Joe Biden responded as his followers wanted – not with truth or restraint but with wokeism and a public conviction before the evidence was in.
“It was horrible what you see, what you saw — to see people treated like they did, with horses nearly running them over and people being strapped. It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay,” Biden said of the Border Patrol agents.
“There’s an investigation underway now and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It’s an embarrassment. It’s beyond an embarrassment.”
Perhaps the embarrassment may be Biden’s.
The Washington Examiner reported on Tuesday that the inspector general’s office inside the Department of Homeland Security, which is over the Border Patrol, opted not to investigate the incident.
The IG’s decision served as “an indication that the inspector general did not consider the incident to be serious,” the Examiner reported.
Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, is still reviewing the case, the Examiner added.
Investigators in the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility “have yet to reach a conclusion in an investigation into the conduct of the accused Border Patrol agents nearly two months after [DHS] Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised immediate results.”
In a statement, the DHS added, Once completed, the results of the investigation will be provided to CBP management to determine whether disciplinary action is appropriate and, if so, the specific discipline to be imposed. At that time, the employees will be afforded due process, including an opportunity to respond, and any corrective actions will comport with applicable laws and regulations.”
The agents are not out of the woods yet. As noted, the CBP hierarchy could still follow through on Biden’s vow to make them “pay.”
Yet, maybe the CBP is wondering how to please our often detached president while squaring his promise with the evidence, which suggests the agents were only doing their jobs.
Photographer Paul Ratije, whose pictures fueled the initial outrage at the time, admitted back in September, “I didn’t ever see them whip anybody.”
“He was swinging it,” Ratije added of the reins. “But I didn’t see him actually take — whip someone with it. That’s something that can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
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