It's a truly shocking, gut-wrenching photograph: a furious mounted US Border Patrol agent on horseback wrestling with a desperate Haitian migrant trying to get into an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas.
The white agent is wielding his horse's long reins in an aggressive way that some believe was akin to whipping the black migrant, conjuring vile memories of the horrific days of American slavery.
But the agents involved later angrily denied this, saying that anyone with 'two brain cells' would know they were using their split reins to control their horses in the melee.
Either way, it's a deeply distressing snapshot of a major new immigration crisis on the southern border.
And nobody was more appalled than President Biden whose press secretary Jen Psaki described the footage as 'horrific', 'horrible' and 'devastating to watch'.
The migrant, clutching plastic bags of food, is one of many thousands of refugees who've sought asylum in America since Haiti was thrown into turmoil by the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moïse, in July, and a massive earthquake that followed in August.
At least 14,000 have gathered at the Del Rio camp.
It's a truly shocking, gut-wrenching photograph: a furious mounted US Border Patrol agent on horseback wrestling with a desperate Haitian migrant trying to get into an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas
The white agent is wielding his horse's long reins in an aggressive way that some believe was akin to whipping the black migrant, conjuring vile memories of the horrific days of American slavery
But the agents involved later angrily denied this, saying that anyone with 'two brain cells' would know they were using their split reins to control their horses in the melee. Either way, it's a deeply distressing snapshot of a major new immigration crisis on the southern border
Paul Ratje, a photographer from Associated Press who took the extraordinarily powerful picture, described what he witnessed to the Washington Post:
'I get to the scene, and everybody is crossing there. We get in the water - a few other colleagues were in the water - and all of a sudden, some police showed up and they started trying to get people to leave. Then the Border Patrol agents on horseback arrived and they started trying to get people to leave. They had gotten a lot of people to start leaving the banks, but then people just kept coming across the river. There was a continuous flow and [the agents] were like: 'No, you can't come in. Go back to Mexico.' But people were like, 'but my family's over there.'
Ratje watched as many of the migrants then tried to run past the Border Patrol, and aimed his camera.
'That's when one of the agents grabbed a guy and kind of swung him around,' he told the Post.
What he captured is undeniably a very ugly photo of a very ugly confrontation.
(Interestingly, Ratje's own take on it, based on what he saw with his own eyes, was not entirely unsympathetic to the agents who he sensed feel 'overwhelmed' and deeply frustrated) that has shocked America, and the wider world, and enraged Democrats as much as Republicans.
'The humanitarian crisis happening under this administration on the southern border disgustingly mirrors some of the darkest moments in America's history,' said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. 'If we were to close our eyes and this was occurring under the Trump administration, what would we do? The inhumane treatment of the Haitian refugees is utterly sickening.'
He's right: if these scenes had happened on Trump's watch, the liberal screaming about what a monster he is, would have echoed around the globe.
As always, Biden gets a less censorious pass from the liberal-dominated media, just as he has done on the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal of US troops and appalling 'mistaken' killing of an Afghan family of ten by a US drone strike.
But my main concern about Biden's handling of this new border crisis is not whether Trump was better or worse than he is at what's been a massive problem for US presidents going back decades.
No, it's that I've come to the unnerving conclusion that Biden has absolutely no clue what to do about it.
Every sinew of his liberal political instincts was screaming at him to fulfil his repeated electioneering promise to treat migrants more humanely than Trump did.
Nobody was more appalled than President Biden whose press secretary Jen Psaki described the footage as 'horrific', 'horrible' and 'devastating to watch'
That's why one of his first actions as president was to suspend deportation flights taking illegal Haitian migrants back to Haiti.
But his instincts also told him that if he's seen to be too weak on the border then that could be potentially just as disastrous for him politically.
And the double whammy of Haiti's presidential assassination and earthquake sparked a new crisis at the border that did indeed make Biden look weak and woefully incompetent.
So, in a panic, he's now ordered the deportation flights to start up again and threatened the Haitian migrants in the Del Rio camp with instant expulsion.
On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas went down to Del Rio and vowed: 'If you come to the United States illegally, you will be returned, your journey will not succeed, and you will be endangering your life and your family's life.'
Tough words, but the truth on the ground is very different.
The AP revealed today that thousands of Haitian migrants are being released into the United States 'on a very very large scale' – completely contradicting Mayorkas' words and undercutting the Biden administration's supposedly draconian new stance.
Little wonder that the desperate migrants, whose reasons to flee Haiti's chaos for a better life are strikingly obvious and understandable, are ignoring the warnings if they know so many others are being let in.
Biden's mixed messaging couldn't be more shockingly bad.
'Get out - but come in!' is about as disastrous an immigration policy slogan that any country could operate – yet that's exactly what America is currently doing.
And much as Biden would love to pass the blame to the beleaguered Border Patrol agents frantically trying to keep order, and make them the target of public opprobrium, the buck actually stops with him as even some of his closest allies acknowledge.
Manny Diaz, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, was appalled by the border scenes.
'That image is hard to erase from your mind,' he said. 'When you're the boss, everything that happened — good or bad — sticks to you.'
These images will stick to Biden just as Trump's child separation cages stuck to him.
And the current president only has himself to blame.
But my main concern about Biden's handling of this new border crisis is not whether Trump was better or worse than he is at what's been a massive problem for US presidents going back decades. No, it's that I've come to the unnerving conclusion that Biden has absolutely no clue what to do about it
America is globally renowned for being a nation that welcomes desperate refugees and gives them a new life.
It's built into the very DNA of the country, and there can be few more deserving recipients of such asylum than the poor people of Haiti.
But there is a legal process for immigration into the U.S. that needs to be followed, or total chaos will ensue.
Right now, that process has been fractured by a weak, flip-flopping president and total chaos is duly ensuing.
Biden promised a new humane way of treating migrants but has instead delivered medieval scenes of white US border patrol agents charging into groups of hungry, impoverished black people seeking a better life.
I don't blame those agents who've been ordered to stop these migrants coming in at the same time as thousands of other migrants are being allowed in.
They must be as confused as the rest of us.
No, I blame President Biden, who created this dreadful mess but doesn't want to accept any blame for it.
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