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“No migrants remained Friday at the Texas border encampment where almost 15,000 people — most of them Haitians — had converged just days earlier seeking asylum, local and federal officials said… The United States and Mexico appeared eager to end the increasingly politicized humanitarian situation that prompted the resignation of the U.S. special envoy to Haiti and widespread outrage after images emerged of border agents maneuvering their horses to forcibly block and move migrants. On Friday, President Joe Biden said the way the agents used their horses was ‘horrible’ and that ‘people will pay’ as a result.” AP News
Here’s more detail about the incident with the border patrol agents. Politifact
Read our recent coverage of Haitian migrants. The Flip Side
The right is critical of the Biden administration for failing to enforce border security and defends the border patrol agents.
“Since Biden’s inauguration day, the president’s entire team has shown no interest in enforcing immigration laws. Biden immediately announced a blatantly illegal six-month suspension of all deportations (a suspension since blocked by federal courts). He also canceled significant funding meant for a border wall, nominated a sanctuary city supporter as head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and repeatedly released illegal immigrants into inland parts of the country…
Of the recent influx of Haitian migrants, “So far, only 3,000 are in ‘detention’ and another 5,000 await preliminary processing, but well over 10,000 have been ‘released’ into the country to await legal proceedings, which take at least six months and sometimes years… another 20,000 supposed Haitians are massing in Colombia, 3,000 in Peru, and 1,500 in Panama, planning to come to the United States. They can see that Biden has no inclination to keep them out.”
Quin Hillyer, Washington Examiner
“So long as large numbers of migrants are getting into the U.S., the ongoing crisis will continue. An estimated 600,000 migrants have been released into the United States this year with notices to appear or report…
“The enforcement system built at the end of the Trump administration was based on the insight that almost all asylum claims at the southern border are bogus and those making them can’t be permitted into the United States because, even if their claims are ultimately rejected, they will never be deported once here…
“Biden tore much of this up for no good reason and has been letting in migrants who have no legitimate claim to asylum. The Haitian migrants are a case in point. They are obviously desperate and deserve our sympathy. Yet many of them were living in Brazil or Chile for years prior to coming to our border by traveling through other countries. Even if they fear persecution in Haiti, they had ample opportunity to apply for asylum in the countries where they were living or have been transiting.”
The Editors, National Review
“New caravans are already forming: Next month will set yet more records for illegal migrants encountered by the border — and probably for migrants who just make it through without being intercepted. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden on Friday denounced . . . the Border Patrol agents who rode horses to control the mass of illegal entrants as they surged out of the Rio Grande… Biden’s border policies created this crisis; the agents got stuck trying to handle it — and the president vilifies them, with the vice president and their own agency chief chiming in.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“The images from Del Rio show only that mounted officers used their reins to steer their horses and corral refugees. There is nothing to suggest law enforcement officials used whips. There is no evidence border agents even struck Haitians…
“Immigration officials use horses along that section of the border because it’s the safest and most effective way to traverse the particularly tricky terrain, which includes rivers, narrow, rocky trails, and muddy embankments. Horses are also excellent for crowd control. Banning the use of horses will only make the job more difficult and possibly more dangerous, and it’s all because Democratic officials and members of the press are too stupid to know the difference between whips and reins. Also, even if the ‘whip’ story were true, why take away the horses?”
Becket Adams, Washington Examiner
“The Biden administration could not be bothered to hold to account officials responsible for literally massacring innocent civilians in Afghanistan, but it was ready to pounce and punish Border Patrol agents, whose only crime was getting caught up in a media-driven faux-outrage cycle. This tells you everything you need to know about this administration.”
Kaylee McGhee White, Washington Examiner
The left is critical of the Biden administration for its harsh treatment of migrants and condemns the border patrol agents.
The left is critical of the Biden administration for its harsh treatment of migrants and condemns the border patrol agents.
“Look at those now-infamous photos and videos of U.S. Border Patrol agents and Haitian refugees: white men on horseback, running down desperately fleeing Black people. How do we speak honestly about that situation without talking about race? How do we talk honestly about how America treats its ‘friends’ on this side of the world without acknowledging race?…
“We don’t. Not when the United States aided the French in trying to maintain slavery in Haiti, not when the United States wouldn’t acknowledge Haiti’s freedom for nearly 60 years, not when asylum seekers from the world’s first Black led-republic currently hold the lowest acceptance rate among the 84 countries for which such data is collected. No, when it comes to our neighbors, not addressing our on-again, off-again interest in Latin America or the role of race is not an honest discussion at all.”
LZ Granderson, Los Angeles Times
“From the start, the United States has demonized and targeted Haiti for having ended slavery on its own terms in the bloody 1791-1803 Haitian Revolution. (As Frederick Douglass put it in 1893, ‘We have not yet forgiven Haiti for being Black.’) The country was then deeply immiserated by a U.S. invasion and occupation that lasted from 1915 to 1934. That episode was immediately preceded by the heist of half of Haiti’s gold reserves by armed U.S. Marines, and ultimately carried out for the benefit of U.S. business and bankers.”
Jonathan M. Katz, Washington Post
“There always seems to have been a particularly high bar for Haitians when it comes to entering the United States… In 1978, the department that was then known as Immigration and Naturalization Service created a program to expel as many Haitians as possible, sending 4,000 Haitians asylum applicants back. The US Fifth Circuit, which is not known for its liberal inclinations, ruled that this was a violation of due process…
“Beginning in 1980, refugees from both Cuba and Haiti began to arrive in Florida. But while Cubans, who had left the communist regime of Fidel Castro were welcomed, Haitians who were fleeing the Duvalier regime were not. Between 1981 and 1991, 25,000 Haitians were intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard and were returned without being screened for asylum, which is a violation of international law.”
Nathalie Baptiste, Mother Jones
“If Biden ever believed immigration could enrich America, that the right to asylum is sacrosanct, that America owes anything at all to the human beings seeking shelter at her border, it’s not evident…
“Daniel Foote wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a letter resigning his job as the U.S. special envoy for Haiti. ‘I will not be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the dangers posed by armed gangs in control of daily life.’”
Sarah Jones, New York Magazine
“There are available solutions if Congress could overcome its horror of bipartisan compromise. The goal should be to establish a realistic annual quota of immigrant visas for Central Americans, Haitians and others desperate to reach this country who otherwise will cross the border illegally — a number that recognizes the U.S. labor market’s demand for such employees. That must be supplemented by a muscular guest worker program…
“Border enforcement can be tightened. It will never be watertight, but providing migrants with a fair shot at coming to the United States to live and work legally would dampen the incentive for individuals and families to pay coyotes to help them enter without documents. It also would bolster the legitimacy and rationality of turning back migrants at the border, many or most of whom do not have legitimate claims under asylum rules… the way forward is clear.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
