By Steve Pomper
A scene in a 1994 Friends episode nailed how I feel about Joe Biden’s treatment of law enforcement officers. To paraphrase, “It’s not that [Biden] is bad, it’s … it’s that [he’s] so bad, [he] makes me want to put my finger through my eye, into my brain, and swirl it around!”
In a previous NPA article about U.S. Border Horse Patrol agents falsely accused of “whipping migrants,” I wrote, “Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is a petty man working for another petty man, Joe Biden, who happens to be occupying the Oval Office. This contention is not hard to support when you ask yourself what kind of petty, pathetic person it takes to condemn public servants who work for you when you know what you’re saying is a lie.”
Mayorkas said he was “horrified,” and the agents’ behavior “painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism.” Stoking division in America. They could give seminars on it—oh, wait… they already are.
The NPA assisted in the case by filing a FOIA lawsuit against DHS for information related to the false allegations officials made against the CBP agents.
In that article, I explored how Biden and administration officials condemned CBP agents for allegedly whipping migrants attempting to cross the border illegally. Agents were using their reins to control the horses’ movements. Worse, Biden and Mayorkas continued blaming the agents even after they had been cleared of wrongdoing.
In another NPA piece, I wrote, “It’s a sign of Joe Biden’s moral (or immoral) center that the one time he keeps a promise… is to punish law enforcement officers. Several mounted Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents were falsely accused of ‘whipping’ immigrants who were attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.” But, after being exonerated, Mayorkas slapped them with specious admin violations like for swearing.
Well, that incident is back in the news, though barely, because the agents were cleared but the government elected not to make a “formal announcement.” The Daily Signal asked about DOJ email revelations. After concluding the investigation and after having been so hyper-public about the incident when it looked to them like agents had done something wrong, why, after declining to prosecute was the DOJ “silent” about something that should have been celebrated?
The DOJ was so silent they didn’t immediately inform the agents about the outcome of their own case. Who cares if some cops twist in the wind a bit longer? Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal wrote, “After closing its investigation of a false allegation that Border Patrol agents whipped Haitian migrants in Texas in September 2021, Justice Department officials didn’t notify the targets of the probe—and opted to say little to the media about the once-hyped matter.
“But department officials did want to notify Al Sharpton.”
As the DOJ concluded the investigation, officials showed little concern for the exonerated agents—mostly, because they’d done nothing wrong. But DOJ officials were concerned about contacting radical anti-law enforcement leftists like Al Sharpton because they knew people like him would be upset that DOJ couldn’t “lock up” some cops.
Al Sharpton
Aryele Bradford of the DOJ Public Affairs Office sent a memo to anti-cop, Marxist radical Asst. AG for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke suggesting which “stakeholders” she should notify about the decision not to prosecute. Sharpton was on the list, but the falsely accused cops were not. The “stakeholders” also included the ACLU Texas, the UnDocuBlack Network, the Haitian Bridge Alliance, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.”
Avoiding transparency, “the department decided against making a formal announcement the probe was closed.” Funny, the Biden administration couldn’t alert the public loudly enough when they could accuse the agents of wrongdoing and put them on administrative leave.
Though the DOJ closed the case in early March 2022, “It wasn’t until July… that Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility released a report that admitted there was no whipping.” Putting that in perspective, according to Newsweek, the photographer who photographed the incident said the CBP agents did not whip migrants, which was reported on Sept. 24th, 2021.
Though the agents were exonerated early on, Biden and Mayorkas had accused them of extraneous administrative and policy violations. “the CBP report says … ‘Several agents engaged in unprofessional or dangerous behavior, including one instance in which an agent used denigrating and offensive language.’”
The CBP agents didn’t do what they were accused of, but an agent said some bad words in the heat of the moment that may have hurt the feelings of people attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.
Oh, the humanity!
In the end, Biden’s DHS led by the thoroughly unpleasant Mayorkas further insulted all the brave men and women of the CBP by choosing not to notify the agents promptly of their vindication. I think I heard somewhere that Biden, Merrick Garland, Mayorkas, and Clarke were last seen stomping their feet, holding their collective breath, and preparing to lie about cops again after exhaling.