Maxine Waters: Treatment of Haitian Migrants Worse Than Slavery

Rep. Maxine Waters decried the treatment of Haitian migrants arriving by the thousands at the southern border, claiming what occurred was “worse than what we witnessed in slavery.”

The California Democrat spoke at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, held in response to photos and claims that surfaced this week showing Border Patrol agents attempting to coral some of the migrants flooding across the Rio Grande. The agents were accused by some of whipping the border crossers despite that they had reins in their hands and not whips.

“I’m pissed,” said Waters. “I’m unhappy and I’m not just unhappy with the cowboys who were running down Haitians and using their reins to whip them. I’m [unhappy] with the administration. We are following the Trump policy … he is the one that does not follow the constitution and would not allow those seeking refuge to petition to get into the country. What the hell are we doing here?

“What we witnessed takes us back hundreds of years,” Waters continued. “What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery … cowboys with their reins, again, whipping black people.”

Waters also questioned “who’s paying these cowboys to do this work,” saying they have “got to be gotten rid of.” {snip}

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Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., also attended the press conference, where she questioned the “cruel, the inhumane, and flat out racist treatment” of Haitian migrants at the southern border.

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“Haitian lives are black lives, and if we truly believe that black lives matter, then we must reverse course,” Pressley said, calling on President Joe Biden‘s administration to “immediately and indefinitely halt all deportations of Haitian migrants.”

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