Aphotographer who took pictures earlier this week of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback in along the southwest Texas border says he never saw any of the migrants involved in the incident being whipped.
“Some of the Haitian men started running, trying to go around the horses,” photographer Paul Ratje told KTSM.com in El Paso, Texas. “I’ve never seen them whip anyone.”
The photos sparked outrage because the agents when viewed from certain angles appears to be whipping migrants, many of them Haitians.
Ratje said one agent was swinging a rope or reign, “but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called images “horrific,” and the Department of Homeland Security has ordered an investigation.
