Scapegoats at the Texas Border The Biden White House blames border agents who are overwhelmed.
At last the Biden Administration is furious about tumult on the southern border. Not about the surge of migrants, mind you. The White House is using a single episode to scapegoat law enforcement and deflect criticism from its immigration failure.
The flare-up came Monday, when Reuters published footage of mounted Border Patrol agents facing down about 200 Haitian migrants near Del Rio, Texas. The article, and several that followed, mistook the officers’ reins for whips and claimed they’d been wielded against migrants. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib denounced what she called “human rights abuses.”
It was a classic rush to judgment in the age of viral images. Yet the Biden Administration joined the pile-on against its own officers. By Tuesday Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas launched an investigation and took the officers off duty. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the actions “brutal and inappropriate” and said President Biden was “horrified.”
Perhaps investigators will conclude that the border agents used excessive force. But the Administration looks fixed on a foregone conclusion. “We are addressing this with tremendous speed and tremendous force,” Mr. Mayorkas said Wednesday. His promise that “it will be completed in days not weeks” should prompt skepticism about fairness.
It’s not surprising that the Administration seized on the moment, which offered supposed moral clarity amid an escalating border mess abetted by Mr. Biden’s response.
Take the Remain in Mexico policy, an agreement struck by President Trump to house migrants in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed. The program relocated more than 70,000 arrivals, but Mr. Biden suspended it in his first week in office. Since March 2020, federal Covid protocols have allowed the removal of migrants under a different authority. Yet the cancellation of Remain in Mexico signals to migrants that, in the long run, the U.S. is open.
Border apprehensions have soared, topping 208,000 in August with thousands more estimated to have crossed undetected. Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk last month gave Mr. Biden a chance to change when he ordered the reinstatement of Remain in Mexico. Instead the Administration has appealed Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling.
The 15,000 some Haitians who arrived in Del Rio last week are a fraction of a continuing wave. The officers in Sunday’s encounter are supposed to control the border but are overwhelmed by the numbers. Only a change in the incentives of U.S. policy can reduce the human tide.
Comments are closed.
