The Border Patrol agent, whom President Biden himself had chastised with false accusations of whipping migrants at the Texas border, has now received an award from the same government.
The agent, whose identity has been protected since the September 2021 incident, was granted a Border Patrol Achievement award by the agency on Thursday morning, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) source cited by The New York Post.
“I find it hilarious and ridiculous that almost three years later, a Border Patrol agent who was accused of being racist and so vilified by this Biden administration now wins an achievement award for his efforts in preventing smuggling, before he gets a public apology,” the DHS source said to the outlet.
Border Patrol Achievement awards are internally granted by the agency and not publicly disclosed. The agent who received the award on Thursday was reassigned to intelligence work on smuggling cases, which led to recognition from his superiors.
He was eventually permitted to resume border duties and engage with illegal immigrants, as per the DHS source.
The agent was one of the five photographed on horseback during the incident, which was widely misinterpreted at the time. The agents were accused of whipping Haitian migrants at the riverbank in Del Rio, Texas, while attempting to control a crowd of roughly 14,000 people crossing into the US illegally.
AP reporter Sarah Blake Morgan, who claimed to have been at the Rio Grande River where groups of Haitian migrants have been trying to enter the U.S, shared a video on then-Twitter around the time of the controversy.
The footage appears to show that the implements in question are reins, not whips—a claim that would eventually be supported by others.
President Biden called the photos “outrageous,” adding “I promise you those [agents] will pay.” He would later add the incident was “beyond an embarrassment” for the U.S, Resist The Mainstream reported.
Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the “horrible” treatment of Haitian migrants, supporting an investigation into the supposed whipping.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) conducted a comprehensive internal investigation into the incident, which found that none of the Haitians were harmed during the altercation.
The investigation also revealed that the agents did not possess whips or use the reins of their horses to strike anyone. However, the probe did conclude that the agents employed “unnecessary” force against the migrants.
One agent was found to have used “denigrating and inappropriate language” and handled his horse “unsafely” during the event.
Fox News reported in 2022 that the DHS’s initial announcement of plans for punitive action against multiple agents sparked outrage among Border Patrol agents.
They perceived it as yet another assault on a group already grappling with low morale.
Many agents viewed the investigation as politicized, aimed at yielding a favorable outcome for the White House, even at the expense of the department as a whole.
“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 said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
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