Paul Ratje has opened up about the heart-wrenching pictures he took of horse-mounted US immigration officers chasing down Haitian migrants that went viral this week. The AFP photographer has stated he hopes his pictures will make persons query the therapy of migrants at the US-Mexico border.
Pictures by Paul Ratje on Monday that had been published repeatedly in media across the United States and about the world showed border patrol riders appearing to swing their mounts’ extended reins to threaten undocumented migrants and push them back to the Rio Grande river that marks the frontier.
According to AFP, critics stated the pictures from Del Rio, Texas recommended each cowboys attempting to herd livestock and instances in history when horse-mounted police, prison guards or slave owners made use of whips against Black Americans.
Mr Ratje took to Instagram on Thursday to share a note on one of his most-iconic pictures from the day, saying that he “thought a lot about what to say on this picture the last few days.”
You can see the post right here.
The photographer stated that he and his colleagues “try to make images that can go without words”, but more than the last couple of days, he realised the objective of his photography must also be to make persons ask inquiries.
“The photos we take should also make you, the viewer, ask questions. You can form your own thoughts and opinions about what you see here, and that’s totally up to you,” he wrote.
Mr Ratje then stated that if there is one query he hopes viewers will ask following searching at his pictures, or any image of migrants at the border, it would be: “Who is this country, this United States of America?”
“Thanks everyone for your comments and attention to what is happening here on the border. Myself and my colleagues are continuing to cover this as closely as we can,” the photographer concluded.
The pictures sparked widespread outrage on social media, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki describing them as “horrific”.
“I have seen some of the footage. I don’t have the full context. I can’t imagine what context would make that appropriate, but I don’t have additional details,” she told reporters earlier this week, according to NBC News. “I don’t think anyone seeing that footage would think it’s acceptable or appropriate.”
The pictures came as US Homeland Security struggles to halt thousands of Haitians and persons from other nations crossing the border hoping to keep in the United States. The Border Patrol started deporting the Haitians back to their nation by air more than the weekend.
But following the pictures of the horsemen and the migrants spread, members of President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party condemned the therapy.
“I urge President Biden… to immediately put a stop to these expulsions,” stated US Senate leader Chuck Schumer.
Representative Veronica Escobar, meanwhile, named them “absolutely unacceptable”.
Absolutely unacceptable.
No matter how difficult the predicament in Del Rio is proper now, nothing at all justifies violence against migrants attempting to seek asylum in our nation.
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— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) September 20, 2021
“No matter how challenging the situation in Del Rio is right now, nothing justifies violence against migrants attempting to seek asylum in our country,” she wrote on Twitter.
Huge public outcry has now resulted in the Biden administration halting the use of horses in Del Rio, Texas by Border Patrol agents.