Images of the use of mounted US border police against Haitian refugees have caused a stir and outrage in the US. The spokeswoman for US President Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, said on Monday (local time), “It is harrowing to look at this footage”. Although she does not know the exact background, she also does not know in which context such a procedure could be “appropriate”.
“I don’t think anyone who saw these footage would consider it acceptable or appropriate,” said Psaki. Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas announced an investigation during a visit to the border area. “We’ll look into the facts.” If necessary, there will be consequences.
Border guards apparently wanted to block the way for refugees
Pictures from photographers from several news agencies and video recordings show how mounted border guards in the state of Texas on the border with Mexico act against refugees from Haiti. A policeman on horseback grabs a man by his T-shirt.
In other photos it looks as if police officers are swinging their long reins menacingly. Internet users felt reminded of the times when police officers on horseback or prison guards in the USA used whips to crack down on black people.
The photographer Paul Ratje, who works for the AFP news agency, said the border police tried to block the refugees from crossing the border river Rio Grande. “Some of the migrants ran off and tried to get past the riders,” said Ratje. This is where his recordings were made. But the situation soon calmed down.
Thousands of Haitians are currently trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States. In the meantime, more than 14,000 migrants have waited under a bridge in the Texas border town of Del Rio under inhumane conditions.
Many of them apparently mistakenly believe that they can be tolerated in the USA. The Haitians would receive “false information” “that the border is open or that temporary protection status is possible,” said Homeland Security Minister Mayorkas. “We have repeated that our borders are not open and people shouldn’t take the dangerous journey. Anyone who comes to the US illegally will be deported.”
Haiti suffers from poverty, violence and political chaos
Psaki said on Monday that the US government was working to get migrants back to their homes quickly and to improve the situation for those waiting on site and to provide people with meals and the like. She reiterated the US government’s message to migrants: It was not the time to go to the US.
Numerous Haitians fled to South American countries such as Chile and Brazil after the devastating earthquake of 2010 with more than 200,000 deaths. Among other things, because of discrimination there and because of the economic consequences of the pandemic, many of them now dared the long, dangerous journey north, according to media reports. Their Caribbean homeland is dominated by poverty, violence and political chaos. Only in mid-August did the earth shake violently again, more than 2000 people died. In July, President Jovenel Moïse was shot dead in his residence near Port-au-Prince.
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