Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images
- A US Border Patrol agent on horseback yelled "this is why your country's shit" at Haitian migrants.
- Haitian migrants were seen in a video crossing the Rio Grande on the way to a camp in Texas.
- The Border Patrol agent used the horse to try to drive the migrants back across the river.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A US Border Patrol agent on horseback yelled "this is why your country's shit" at Haitian migrants attempting to get back to a migrant camp in Texas, according to a video reported by Al Jazeera on Monday.
In the video, a group of Haitian migrants – identified by reporter John Holman as a family – huddles together as the unidentified Border Patrol agent points back across the Rio Grande river.
The agent then points at a man carrying bags in the back of the group standing behind a woman and shouts "Hey, you use your women? This is why your country's shit. Because you use your women for this."
As the group moves onto a nearby road, the video shows the agent using the horse to try and scatter the migrants, nearly hitting a small child.
A different Border Patrol agent on horseback agent swings the horse's reins at another migrant as the man in the group is forced away into the river.
US Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
As of last weekend, thousands of migrants in a makeshift camp were sheltering under the Del Rio International Bridge, which crosses the Rio Grande from Mexico to the US.
The Haitians have fled as their country was rocked by crisis after crisis, including the assassination of its president and a devastating earthquake.
The Al Jazeera report showed many of them carrying their belongings and wading through ankle- or waist-deep water across the Rio Grande to reach the US after fetching food in Mexico.
Shocking images of border agents driving away migrants has sparked outrage, with Rep. Ilhan Omar saying it amounted to "human rights abuses."
At a briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that while she hasn't seen the full context of the video, she "can't imagine what context would make [the agents' actions] appropriate."
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