The Biden leadership has stated that it is permitting a “full” inquiry into a fight between Border Police officials and unauthorized migrants to avoid a repetition of the scandal over “whipping” charges that plagued the government last year.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus tweeted on Thursday, “Before there’s a knee-jerk reaction, it seems best to allow a complete and impartial inquiry as most workers in any workplace would prefer.”
His remarks pertained to the Monday event in which many Venezuelan migrants entered the United States illegally through El Paso, Texas, waving a giant flag. Pepper ball shots can be heard near the migrants as agents drive them back to their original place.
CBP released a statement saying that many Venezuelans had attempted to enter the United States illegally while protesting near the international boundary of the Rio Grande.
According to the agency, one protester used a flagpole to attack an agent, while another tossed a rock at agents, wounding one of them. Because of this, the Border Patrol had to take action to contain the swarm of people.
According to the statement, “these tactics included the permitted less-lethal technique pepper ball launching device.” “Then everybody scattered and went back to Mexico.”
CBP has said that the event is being investigated by its Office.
Yet the event was swiftly condemned by activist groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who labeled it “the latest in an ongoing series of abuses taken out by CBP.”
The Biden admin, they added, “must reestablish a decent procedure for requesting asylum” after the government’s unsuccessful efforts to stop individuals from seeking refuge in the United States resulted in death and misery.
The National Border Patrol Council expressed their dismay by saying, “Go to hell.”
Magnus issued a statement on Tuesday indicating he was “watching information” regarding the event, hours after CBP made its original statement.
Pepper ball munitions, a less-than-lethal technique that agents are trained to use to protect themselves and others, were used because “many people got belligerent and physically assaultive” during the event, he added.
Magnus gave a cryptic explanation for why he has yet to be more forthcoming in his remarks regarding the event on Thursday.
In the past, “many had protested when conclusions regarding historical instances were reached with little or erroneous information,” he stated.
He didn’t specify which cases he was referring to. Still, the Biden administration has been mired in a scandal since last year’s skirmish between migrants and Border Patrol officials in Del Rio Sector.
It was September 2021, and agents on horseback in Del Rio attempted to prevent Haitian migrants from crossing a river. The agents were seen using long reins to manage their horses, but others on social media and in the administration incorrectly claimed that the agents had used whips on the migrants.
The president, who falsely accused agents of having “strapped” migrants and warned that “those individuals would pay,” helped spread this story during the Biden administration.
Even after learning that the photographer had not witnessed any whipping, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did not challenge the whipping narrative at a press conference hours later. But Mayorkas criticized the photos, saying they were “horrifying” and “painfully conjured up the ugliest components of our nation’s continuing war against institutional racism.”
A follow-up inquiry revealed no evidence of agents using whips or assaulting migrants. However, they were criticized for less serious infractions, including riding too near a youngster on a horse. Republicans and the Border Patrol union criticized the Biden administration for helping spread this false story, and it is generally agreed that this did little to improve the government’s already tense relationship with its agents on the front lines.
So yet, Mayorkas has said nothing about the argument from Monday.