By BARBARA SIMPSON
Surprising no one, the problem of our porous Southern border continues to follow the Biden administration. The issue of how our border agents “treat” illegals got into the headlines again the past week, and the news was not good for Biden and his followers.
The incident at hand was the controversy that started in September 2021 over how border patrol agents allegedly treated Haitian immigrants at the border. At the time, there was an encampment of an estimated 15,000 migrants. There was a photograph of border patrol agents on horseback and the accusation against them was that they were whipping the migrants with the reins of the horses.
The pictures — videos and photographs — were taken by freelance journalist Paul Ratje and were widely circulated in the media along with the accusations that the agents were “whipping” the migrants.
Those accusations against the agents came from the administration, from the president himself as well as from other officials. They were deemed “guilty” based on the photographs.
A several weeks long investigation followed, during which the agents were removed from active duty. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was quoted in Breitbart as accusing the agents of “brutal and inappropriate behavior.” The investigation has continued since then, though not in the headlines.
The president himself also berated the agents during a speech. “It was horrible to see what you saw, to see people treated like they did. Horses running them over, people being strapped. It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay. There will be an investigation underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences.”
It should be noted that he said that even after further examination of the photos led many who understand horse control, to say that the agents were using the reins to control the animals, not the people. In addition, Paul Ratje, the photographer who took the pictures, said that he did not see agents using whips on the migrants.
Despite that, the mainstream media, print and video, took up the mantra that the agents were guilty, and the migrants were innocent victims of government cruelty. The agents were removed from active duty and the issue caused enormous problems in the department.
The investigation continued and of course, the issue disappeared from the headlines — until last week, when it was announced by Fox News that those agents accused of “whipping” migrants have been cleared of any wrongdoing.
The announcement got little news coverage and there has not been any recorded reaction from the president nor from his administration.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also has refrained from any official comment although he was very vocal against the agents at the time of the incident.
He had already made up his mind, that the border agents were guilty — saying, at the time, that the photos “horrified him” and its’ reported he told CNN that “one cannot weaponize a horse to aggressively attack a child. That is unacceptable.”
The effect on the morale of the Border Patrol was enormous. In addition to dealing with the huge, daily surge of illegals across the border, they were faced with an administration that didn’t support them and their work.
On top of all this, there is the plan by the president to end “Title 42.” That’s a policy of the Trump administration that gives border agents the authority to immediately turn away illegals from countries with outbreaks of communicable diseases.
The ruling has already barred approximately one million from entering the country. Estimates of illegals who have tested positive for COVID after crossing the border this year range from 20 percent to more than half. President Biden plans to eliminate the ruling entirely.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told a Just the News podcast this week, that he has “never seen morale any lower” than it is now. According to Judd, “We just know that we’re not able to do the job that is necessary to protect the American public.”
It’s estimated that the number of illegals crossing the border will increase exponentially and could get as high as five to ten thousand a day. In addition to the issue of dealing with numbers that high, is the real problem of what happens to those people once they are across the border.
It is known that the administration is busing and flying many of them to various unsuspecting cities within the 50 states.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is busing illegals to Washington, D.C., so that the president can deal with the issue on his home turf.
The bottom-line issue to all this is that the southern border of this country is open and people from countries across the world are coming here because they want the freedom that the United States enjoys.
There already is controversy about Ukrainian refugees coming to the border — flying to Mexico and traveling north to the U.S. border — and perhaps getting preferential treatment over those from Southern countries.
It would appear that the whole world wants “in,” but the American people aren’t being properly heard by our politicians. There perhaps is an argument to be made for the fair treatment of people, but it seems to me that citizens of our country should come first.
It was reported on WND.com that agents had more than 160,000 encounters in February 2022 compared to fewer than 37,000 in February 2020. If the numbers projected for after Biden’s ending of Title 42 come to pass, Judd predicts that the entire border will be overwhelmed and that the cartels will, in effect, control the entire border.
Given their success now in bringing drugs and arms across the border, that possibility is almost beyond comprehension.
What we need now is some kind of reaction from our president. I’m waiting.
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