Immigrants sit and lie under the international bridge at a migrant camp on the US-Mexico border on Tuesday in Del Rio, Texas. Photo: AFP

More than 200 years ago in the US, the long whip in the hands of slave owners was one of the things that black slaves feared the most. But until the 21st century today, similar scenes have never stopped to happen in the country. Such startling reality is thought-provoking: How much progress has the US made in its values of so-called democracy and human rights over the past two centuries?

The US recently stepped up repatriation of illegal immigrants from Haiti. Video clips circulated on social media on Sunday show US Border Patrol agents who rode on horseback were whipping Haitian migrants. A migrant fell while trying to evade horses, while some others used their hands to cover their heads. A US agent was swinging his whip and shouting, "Get out now! Back to Mexico!" Another agent even yelled "This is why your country's shit." Likewise, former US president Donald Trump on Sunday said the US is becoming a "cesspool of humanity" amid the border crisis.

"I don't have the full context… I don't think anyone seeing that footage would think it was acceptable or appropriate," said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday. However, US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas suggested it was possible that the agent was simply holding a "long rein" instead of a whip. 

But their response did not ease the severe criticism on Twitter: "It plops us right back into 1800's plantation mindsets." "The federal government has a duty to treat them with basic respect." "I want to vomit looking at this. What have we become?"

Whipping migrants and the use of insulting language reflects undisguised racism. The US has never changed since more than 200 years ago, and the US government's attitude toward migrants has not improved at all. Objectively speaking, migrants have made contributions to the US economy and culture throughout history, but now they have become a thorn in many American people's eyes. 

Trump used to be hostile to migrants during his administration, and now the Democratic Party has followed suit. Although the Biden administration has promised to build a "fair and humane immigration system - restoring the progress Trump has cruelly undone and taking it further," the problem has in fact worsened.

According to data released by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), US authorities detained 208,887 migrants in August, a number remained at decades-high levels despite the summer heat. CBP has stopped more than 1.2 million border crossers since US President Joe Biden took office. The growing number of illegal migrants is squeezing the space of detention centers in the country. The harsh conditions in these centers have deprived detainees of their hope and human rights.

Alexander Martinez, a 28-year-old who crossed the border illegally in April, is one of them. "I find myself emotionally unstable because I have suffered a lot in detention. I never imagined or expected to receive this inhumane treatment," he said in August.

Martinez's experience is being staged in various detention centers across the US. Even if these migrants are illegal, the US should at least treat them with basic respect and deal with the problem according to laws and procedures. Many migrants came to the US with hope and longing, only to find the so-called American dream an illusion when they ended up waiting for their destiny in the detention center.

"Whipping Haitian migrants is similar to the many other incidents of abusing ethnic minorities and violent law enforcement in the US. They all reflect that the US practice of human rights and democracy is selective and ridiculous. Such systemic racism is too deeply-rooted to resolve in the country," Yang Xiyu, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times.

The "beacon of human rights" has almost become a laughing stock. When the US replaces legal process with whips and law trials with torture, it is ignoring the development of its civilization over the past centuries, and even going back to square one.