President Joe Biden has announced he will be visiting the southern border on Sunday, however, it is uncertain if he will meet with Border Patrol agents or address a false claim he made in 2021 when he accused agents of having “strapped” Haitian migrants.
During a White House speech on Thursday, Biden unveiled measures to deal with the ongoing border crisis, including an expanded parole program and a plan to increase returns to Mexico. However, the visit may be overshadowed by comments Biden made in September 2021 when he accused agents of whipping migrants and promised that “they will pay.”
The incident occurred when Border Patrol agents were dealing with a surge of over 10,000 migrants, predominantly from Haiti. Photographs of the migrants encountering agents circulated on social media and were incorrectly interpreted as showing agents using whips or whipping migrants trying to cross the river. In reality, the agents were using split reins to control their horses.
Biden’s comments outraged Border Patrol agents at the time, as it was already clear from video and basic knowledge of operations that no whipping occurred. Many agents feared the comments were placing political pressure on investigators to fault the agents with something.
The Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility’s investigation ultimately found that there was no evidence that agents struck migrants and noted that they do not carry whips. The probe did find multiple infractions, but they were not as severe as Biden’s claim that migrants were whipped.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, accused Biden of disregarding the rule of law and pandering to a left-wing base that dislikes law enforcement. Judd stated, “If he cared about the rule of law, he would recognize that what he did was wrong.
And in recognizing that what he did was wrong, he would make it right. And he refuses to do that. And that’s politics. He knows darn good and well that if he were to make right his wrong, his base would be extremely upset with him.”
When asked if the incident still mattered to Border Patrol agents, Judd said “absolutely,” accusing Biden of “…using Border Patrol agents as pawns to gain political points with his base.”
It remains to be seen if Biden will address or apologize for his false claim during his visit to the southern border. However, it is clear that the incident and the investigation that followed have caused resentment and frustration among Border Patrol agents.
