“I take responsibility,” President Joe Biden said on national TV, and he should, he is responsible. But he then reversed himself, saying in effect that Border Patrol agents on horseback were the guilty parties in something “horrible,” a noninjurious confrontation with antagonistic migrants. “They will pay,” he wanted you to know.
The “horrible” incident was actually petty relative to the moment’s immigration chaos. Truly important was that something like 15,000 Haitian men, women and children crossed the border illegally, were caught and ended up in some empty land under an international bridge between Mexico and Texas. Here was something really awful: despair, confusion, torn tents, ravaged blankets, garbage, sickness and little food although lots of dirt to sleep on.
A couple of hundred took off from the camp in Del Rio for Mexico to get some food, just as hundreds are retreating there now. As they were illegally crossing the Rio Grande on the way back, they encountered Border Patrol agents on foot failing to stop them, and U.S. officials then called on agents on horseback who have made an enormous difference in keeping the border safe.
Because of professional duties, for the sake of others and despite risks, these trained, experienced officers often have to employ some level of pushback beyond the grasp of those thinking only in terms of evil oppressor and innocent victim. What happened was nevertheless a muddle as the insubordinate migrants walked past and in between the horses in their way.
