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EXCLUSIVE: Border Patrol agents are furious after it has emerged that the Department of Homeland Security is expected to punish multiple agents who were caught up in since-debunked allegations that they whipped Haitian migrants in Del Rio last year – exacerbating already rock-bottom morale among agents who see a politicized investigation designed to deliver a result for the White House.
“What we’re seeing right now is the executive branch weaponizing the Office of Professional Responsibility to go after what President Biden perceives as political opponents,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told Fox News Digital. “He doesn’t like the Border Patrol. He has never liked the mission of the Border Patrol. And now he is going after these agents because he panders to open border activists. This should never happen in this country.”
DHS SET TO PUNISH BORDER PATROL AGENTS ACCUSED IN HAITIAN MIGRANT ‘WHIPPING’ INCIDENT
Fox News reported Tuesday that DHS is preparing to discipline “multiple” horseback Border Patrol agents involved in the incident of Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border back in September, where some Democrats and immigration activists incorrectly believed they saw agents whipping Haitian migrants.
A federal source told Fox News an announcement on the matter is expected within the coming days. The agents are expected to discipline the agents with “administrative violations” rather than any criminal conduct – which was ruled out by the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) last year. Fox is told that DHS will be putting forward their proposals for discipline to the agents, and the agents will then have a chance to respond and either accept the discipline, or fight it.
“I am through being surprised” one agent told Fox, along with a countdown until the agent’s retirement date. Another source told Fox that they knew of a number of agents who were planning on shifting their retirement forward as a result.
Another described it as “f—- bulls–t”
“Those agents did nothing wrong,” the agent said.
The controversy began amid the Haitian migrant crisis in Del Rio in September, where more than 10,000 migrants were gathered underneath the area’s International Bridge. As the situation worsened, agents were sent out on horseback to control the situation.
Images circulated on Twitter of the agents trying to block migrants from entering the U.S., and in one case grabbing a migrants’ shirt. The controversy escalated as some media outlets and Democratic lawmakers misidentified the agents’ split reins, which they use and twirl to control and direct the horse — and falsely claimed the agents were using “whips” on the migrants.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas initially backed the agents, but later changed his message, saying that the images “troubled me profoundly” and adding that “one cannot weaponize a horse” against migrants. Mayorkas announced that horses would no longer be used in Del Rio, and the agents were shifted to desk duty pending an investigation into their conduct. He would go on to promise that the investigation would be “completed in days, if not weeks.”
Vice President Harris and President Biden also weighed in against the agents, with Biden increasing the pressure on the besieged agents by repeating the false claims of whipping, and also previewed what he hoped would be the outcome of the investigation.
“To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped – it’s outrageous,” Biden told reporters, making a whipping motion with his hand.
“I promise you, those people will pay,” he said of the agents. “There will be an investigation underway now and there will be…