A national law enforcement organization has sued the Biden administration’s top border officials for withholding information about how the White House handled a 2021 incident in which President Joe Biden accused Border Patrol agents of whipping migrants.
The National Police Association announced Thursday morning that it had filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and its U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency for failing to respond to a February request for all records regarding CBP’s investigation into the Del Rio, Texas, incident last September.
“Recent media reports indicate the Administration is planning to charge the agents with ‘administrative violations’ to save face and prevent the need to admit the whipping accusations were false, defamatory, and unconscionable,” NPA spokeswoman retired Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith said in a statement, referring to a Washington Examiner report. “We believe our lawsuit will result in DHS and CBP conforming to the law and handing over the communications and documents that prove the Administration knew their accusations against these agents were false and took no corrective action.”
In a highly publicized incident that unfolded as 20,000 Haitian migrants came across the Rio Grande from Mexico and set up camp under a bridge, mounted Border Patrol agents were photographed and filmed attempting to prevent people from walking across the river and past their horses on the U.S. shoreline.
Male migrants ignored agents’ verbal orders to turn around, and the mounted agents rode along the riverbank as migrants tried to get past them. In a photograph, an agent appeared to use something in his hand to whip a man, though the Border Patrol has since said agents are not issued whips and that the agent had held the horse’s reins in such a way to create distance between the animal and the man to prevent the horse from trampling him.
People on social media suggested some of the agents had whipped migrants. Before any investigation had been undertaken, top Biden administration officials condemned the federal law enforcement agents. Biden said people were “being strapped” in an “outrageous” way and vowed that “those people will pay.” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was “horrified” by the images before later admitting he reacted “without having seen the images.”
Mayorkas vowed before Congress last fall to conclude within “a matter of days, not weeks” if agents were too aggressive, but no conclusion has been publicly disclosed. DHS officials exclusively told the Washington Examiner in January that they do not expect a conclusion to be shared because it could only vindicate the accused agents and embarrass the Biden administration.
The NPA, a nonprofit group that educates the public on how to support local, state, tribal, and federal police, asked for all communications about the investigation between CBP and the DHS and all texts, emails, and other communications between Mayorkas, DHS staff, the White House, and the DHS Office of Inspector General related to the incident.
“This was something that was extremely public,” Brantner Smith said in February. “And so the information about this case, and whatever the conclusion was, and whatever remedy the agents receive also, we believe needs to be very public so that people know.”
Ultimately, NPA wants to see the DHS issue a conclusion to its investigation and Biden to apologize for “vilifying” the agents before knowing the facts, she said.
Reporting from The Washington Examiner.
