Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday expressed his support for Border Patrol agents who have been cleared after an alleged whipping incident at the nation’s southern border.
The Department of Homeland Security is expected to make an announcement regarding several Border Patrol agents tasked with protecting the border near Del Rio, Texas. The incident occurred in September after thousands of mostly Haitian migrants crossed the Rio Grande River and camped under the Del Rio International Bridge.
“These Border Patrol agents have already been legally cleared from any wrongdoing,” Abbott tweeted on Thursday.
“It’s outrageous Biden continues to attack the Border Patrol who are trying their best to secure our border. I offer any of them a job to help Texas secure the border,” he added.
The news comes after the New York Post reported in April that the agents had been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, but were still under an administrative review, The Daily Wire previously reported.
“The [Department of Homeland Security’s] Office of the Inspector General, they had first crack at it,” Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told the newspaper. “They determined there was no criminal activity that was done so they closed out their investigation.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, some journalists claimed the photos showed Border Patrol agents were “whipping” migrants, but the photos actually show split reins, not whips.
Split reins are used to direct the horse and hang loosely down the horse’s shoulders. When a horse makes a sudden movement, those strips of leather will naturally flow outward, which is what was depicted in the images. In no picture was a Border Patrol agent holding a whip or even holding the reins in a whip-like fashion.
The photographer whose photos of the agents went viral late last year said in an interview that he never saw the agents whip anyone.
“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” photographer Paul Ratje said. “He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
Fox News reported that ABC, CBS, and NBC all pushed the debunked claim that Border Patrol agents were whipping Haitian migrants, but didn’t inform viewers that the claim had been discredited. Biden noted at the time that “those people will pay,” according to the report.
In addition to supporting the Border Patrol agents, Abbott has continued to blast the Biden administration over its border policies, arguing that his state has been forced to do more as a result.
“Texas continues to do more than any state in history to secure the border,” the governor stated on Wednesday.
Texas continues to do more than any state in history to secure the border. pic.twitter.com/vdpZZu4mve
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 15, 2022
In addition, Abbott has responded to the Biden administration’s border policies by sending 65 buses carrying more than 2,000 migrants to the nation’s capital since mid-April.
Once the migrants are dropped off in D.C., local nonprofit groups often help them adjust to life in America.
Abbott first announced plans to bus migrants ahead of the Biden administration’s plans to end Title 42 in early April.
“To help local officials – because communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden Administration – Texas is providing charter buses for these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off to Washington, D.C.,” the Texas governor said.
“We are sending them to the United States capital where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border,” he added.