If you thought kids in cages looked bad, President Biden, then take a look at this | Editorial

What’s your thinking, Mr. President, about the images of the border agent grabbing and menacing a Haitian migrant with what looks for all the world like a whip, a migrant who, like hundreds of others, seeks to enter this, ahem, land of the free; a hungry migrant who, if you look closely, is bringing food back to his encampment.

Not only are the Haitian migrant and his compatriots “yearning to breath free,” they are yearning to do so in the very country that bears so much culpability — though not all, of course — for the unending misery of the Haitian people in their homeland. The same misery to which you are too willing to deport them, using the same public-health excuse as your predecessor, the one who took Central America children away from their migrant parents.

We’re urging everyone in our own immigrant-loving, immigrant-rich community of Greater Miami to make their cries of displeasure clear to you and your staff, Mr. President. We’ll make it easy: @POTUS; @VP; @SecMayorkas and @DHS.gov. Call congressional lawmakers at 202 224-3121.

Jen Psaki, your press secretary — master of understatement that she is — said the images from the incident at the border were “horrible to watch.” She followed up saying that she needed more information before it was determined whether any action would be taken against the agent, who charged his horse toward the migrant and brandished what Reuters news agency called a “lariat” and the El Paso Times called a “whip:” “The agent swung his whip menacingly, charging his horse toward the men in the river who were trying to return to an encampment under the international bridge in Del Rio after buying food and water in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.”

We’re not sure if the border agent was channeling his inner “massa” from all those slave-era movies Hollywood churns out. But we’re pretty sure that he was just doing his job, following orders. Orders to round up these migrants so that they can be deported., Your orders, ultimately, President Biden.

It’s a bad look, Mr. President. And it’s on you.