Maeve Higgins: US asylum system is as violent as any whips

Photos of border patrol agents in Texas chasing migrants into the river are painful and shocking. Less conspicuous, but just as violent and inhumane, is the asylum system faced by those seeking safety in this country

A United States Border Patrol agent on horseback tries to stop a Haitian migrant from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on September 19, 2021. Picture: Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images

It is stunning to read the following clarification, written last week by the editor of the El Paso Times. “Our reporting team witnessed at least one agent on horseback swing his reins like a whip. We have updated the story to clarify that fact, since it was not an actual whip.”

Terribly, the clarification was needed at the top of its story about border patrol agents charging at migrants on September 19, screaming at them from their perches on horseback as the migrants tried to cross a river. The migrants, mainly Haitians, were attempting to get back to their camp under the international bridge in Del Rio after buying food in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.