Federal officers are investigating an incident captured on video through which a Border Patrol agent slammed a migrant to the bottom in El Paso, Texas, Customs and Border Protection mentioned Saturday. Over the previous few months, the border metropolis has struggled to accommodate tens of hundreds of migrants fleeing financial collapse, poverty and authoritarian rule.
Local volunteers in El Paso mentioned the incident occurred Friday morning outdoors a shelter housing newly arrived migrants. They mentioned Border Patrol brokers apprehended a migrant utilizing “excessive force.”
Surveillance video shared with CBS News seems to indicate a Border Patrol agent in search of to take custody of a suspected migrant outdoors a constructing. After showing to push the migrant close to the constructing, the agent grabbed the migrant and slammed him to the bottom, the video reveals. The agent then seems to handcuff the migrant, who stays on the bottom, whereas one other agent noticed the apprehension.
The 38-second video, which depicts onlookers observing the incident, doesn’t present what led as much as the apprehension or subsequent occasions.
In a press release, Customs and Border Protection confirmed the video confirmed a Border Patrol agent making an arrest. The company mentioned its Office of Professional Responsibility was “reviewing the incident.”
“Although, at the moment we do not have all the details of what occurred during this incident, CBP takes all allegations of misconduct seriously, investigates thoroughly, and holds employees accountable when policies are violated,” the company mentioned.
Volunteers mentioned the incident was alarming.
“Today, an individual receiving services at the Welcome Center, located at 201 E. 9th Avenue, was apprehended in front of the facility by Customs and Border Protection officials with what seems to us to be excessive force. To our knowledge, this is an isolated incident. However, it raises our concerns for the well-being of the individual taken into custody and all the guests receiving services in our homeless programs,” mentioned Ray Tullius, founding father of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless, the group that shared the surveillance video outdoors one in every of its shelters.
President Biden is about to go to El Paso Sunday alongside Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Earlier within the week, Mr. Biden unveiled a brand new technique to curtail unlawful border crossings by expelling migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua to Mexico in the event that they search to enter the southern border unlawfully and permitting some nationals of these nations to enter the U.S. legally if a U.S.-based particular person utilized to sponsor them.
The incident outdoors the El Paso shelter additionally comes amid ramped-up efforts by Border Patrol to apprehend migrants on the streets of the Texas border metropolis who evaded apprehension. Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping on the town’s streets due to depleted shelter area and since El Paso officers have barred migrants who evaded Border Patrol apprehension from federally funded housing services, together with a conference middle now housing migrants.
Many of these migrants are Venezuelans who mentioned they evaded detection, as an alternative of surrendering to frame officers, after coming into the U.S. illegally as a result of they feared being expelled again to Mexico.
Customs and Border Protection confirmed it had elevated the variety of Border Patrol brokers patrolling El Paso in “response to migrants evading apprehension.”
“CBP, which is responsible for securing the U.S. border between ports of entry, uses a layered approach that includes patrolling the border itself, nearby areas and neighborhoods, and conducting checkpoints — both stationary and temporary,” the company mentioned in a press release.
But the incident being investigated might be at odds with Biden administration coverage that typically bars immigration arrests “in or near a location that would restrain people’s access to essential services or engagement in essential activities.”
An October 2021 memo by Mayorkas instructed CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to chorus from apprehending migrants in or close to these so-called “protected areas,” which embody shelters.
“We can accomplish our enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals’ access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship, and more,” Mayorkas wrote within the 2021 memo.
