Paul Ratje has opened about the heart-wrenching images he took of horse-mounted US immigration officers chasing down Haitian migrants that went viral in the week . The AFP photographer has said he hopes his photos will make people question the treatment of migrants at the US-Mexico border.
Pictures by Paul Ratje on Monday that were published repeatedly in media across the us and round the world showed patrol riders appearing to swing their mounts’ long reins to threaten undocumented migrants and push them back to the Rio Grande river that marks the frontier.
According to AFP, critics said the pictures from Del Rio , Texas suggested both cowboys attempting to herd livestock and times in history when horse-mounted police, prison guards or slave owners used whips against Black Americans.
Mr Ratje took to Instagram on Thursday to share a note on one among his most-iconic photos from the day, saying that he “thought tons about what to mention on this picture the previous couple of days.”
You can see the post here.
The photographer said that he and his colleagues “try to form images which will go without words”, but over the previous couple of days, he realised the aim of his photography should even be to form people ask questions.
The photos we take should also cause you to , the viewer, ask questions. you’ll form your own thoughts and opinions about what you see here, and that is totally up to you,” he wrote.
Mr Ratje then said that if there’s one question he hopes viewers will ask after watching his images, or any image of migrants at the border, it might be: “Who is that this country, this us of America?”
“Thanks everyone for your comments and a spotlight to what’s happening here on the border. Myself and my colleagues are continuing to hide this as closely as we will ,” the photographer concluded.
The images sparked widespread outrage on social media, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki describing them as “horrific”.
“I have seen a number of the footage. i do not have the complete context. i can not imagine what context would make that appropriate, but i do not have additional details,” she told reporters earlier in the week , consistent with NBC News. “I don’t
The images came as US Homeland Security struggles to halt thousands of Haitians and other people from other countries crossing the border hoping to remain within the us . The patrol began deporting the Haitians back to their country by air over the weekend.
But after the pictures of the horsemen and therefore the migrants spread, members of President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party condemned the treatment.
“I urge President Biden… to right away put a stop to those expulsions,” said United States Senate leader Chuck Schumer.