The photographer who witnessed the incident where horseback-mounted Border Patrol agents attempted to control Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande last week said he never saw agents whipping anyone. His photographs led to unfounded claims from many officials including President Joe Biden that agents were whipping or “strapping” the migrants with whips.
After days of controversy surrounding a false report that border patrol agents on horseback in Texas used whips to drive Haitian migrants away from the border, the Biden administration on Thursday banned the use of horses in Del Rio, Texas.
When President Biden took office in January, his administration ordered an immediate halt on the construction of a 30-foot high border fence, leaving a gaping hole at one of the most vulnerable stretches of the US-Mexican border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on Friday a Border Patrol agent who was patrolling near the Rio Grande in the El Paso Sector fired upon from two individuals on the Mexican side of the border. The agent took cover and was not hit.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in a planned phone call on Monday with Vice President Kamala Harris he would urge the United States to reopen the two countries' shared southern border "completely."
