Dramatic new video has emerged of a violent confrontation between migrants and US authorities along the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas — where the feds fired pepper balls after one officer was struck by a rock and another assaulted with a flagpole.
The footage captured by the El Paso Times shows Border Patrol agents approaching the group — which included a man holding a massive Venezuelan flag – crossing the Rio Grande illegally on Monday.
The federal agents are seen forming a line along the border to push the marauding group back to Mexico as one migrant jabs the flagpole at the agents.
Border Patrol spokesperson Landon Hutchens said that as the group of Venezuelan nationals protested along the river, they tried to enter the US illegally.
“One of the protesters assaulted an agent with a flagpole,” Hutchens said in a statement. “A second subject threw a rock causing injury to an agent at which time agents responded by initiating crowd control measures.”
Those measures included firing “less-lethal force” pepper balls, which release an irritant to the eyes, nose and throat, he said, adding that the crowd then dispersed and returned to Mexico about 1:20 p.m. ET.
Hutchens did not provide details on the agents’ injuries.
Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility will review the incident, the statement said.
Before the chaotic confrontation Monday, a group of migrants had marched in Juarez, across the border from El Paso, demanding an opportunity to cross the border, the El Paso Times reported.
In response to a dramatic increase in migration from Venezuela, the Biden administration on Oct. 13 applied Title 42, a pandemic measure to expel immigrants from the US to Venezuelans, if they entered the country illegally at the Southern border.
The administration has agreed to accept up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants at American airports, while Mexico has agreed to take back Venezuelans who cross into the US illegally over land.
A record number of Venezuelans —189,000 — had crossed the southern border of the US in the fiscal year 2022 – as people fled from the country’s failing economy and unstable political system.
Since that time, about 1,800 Venezuelans have been returned to Mexico, finding themselves penniless in Juárez, its Mexican sister city.
Ejected migrants have been amassing on the Mexican side of the border, erecting a tent city while waiting for another chance to enter the US.
Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s director for North American affairs, said in a tweet Monday that the Mexican government had requested information from its American counterparts about the incident in El Paso.
Jonathan Blazer, director of border strategies at the American Civil Liberties Union, called the footage of the border confrontation “highly alarming.”
“People seeking asylum on US soil should be screened for protection, not pushed back, especially through use of force,” Blazer said.
Customs and Border Protection agents used “less-lethal” force — such as batons, stun guns, tear gas and pepper spray — 338 times in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to statistics from the agency.
With Post wires