Samuel remembers the scorching heat against his skin and the cries of his two young children, who were tired, hungry and sick.

They were in Del Rio, Texas, after a grueling two-month journey from Chile that took them through several countries, including Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

At the southern U.S. border, Samuel remembers seeing people passed out on the ground as well as pregnant women and babies who had made similar journeys and were stuck in the same precarious situation as he and his family.

His children, who were 8 and 1 at the time, were vomiting and had diarrhea. He thought they would die of hunger if he couldnt find food quickly.

In my culture, as a man youre not supposed to cry. Youre supposed to be the strong one. My children were crying. My wife was crying. I didnt know what to do, Samuel told HuffPost via an interpreter.

Samuel, who is being referred to by a pseudonym due to his work in Haitian politics and because he is seeking asylum in the U.S., decided to take his son to a river, where he had heard that local organizations were passing out food. On his way there, he suddenly saw scores of people running in his direction, being chased by Americans.

His son began screaming and tried to run away. In his panic, the young boy fell and injured his eye before Samuel could scoop him up. It has been a year, and Samuel said his son still hasnt been able to recover, physically and emotionally, from the incident.

In September 2021, U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback chased tens of thousands of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers as they crossed the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acua, Mexico, into Del Rio. Photos and videos of the incident went viral, particularly one photo showing a Border Patrol officer on horseback grabbing at the shirt of a migrant holding bags that appeared to be holding food and water. In another incident, an agent yelled profanities at a migrant and dangerously maneuvered his horse around a small child on a slanted concrete ramp. At least one agent was recorded making derogatory comments about Haiti and Haitian women.

The incident drew national attention, and the pushback was immediate, with people condemning the Border Patrol for its treatment of the migrants.

Despite the outcry, Haitian migrants, immigration activists and researchers say that little has been done to rectify the asylum process, and they point to a larger issue at hand: institutionalized racism that has become deeply embedded in the countrys immigration laws, particularly for Black migrants.

As we are heading into the one-year anniversary of what the world witnessed in Del Rio, we want people to remember that moment. We want people to remember the inhumane treatment of people of African descent, said Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for fair immigration policies.

Race-Based Torture

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both condemned the incident at the border at the time, with Harris comparing the treatment of Haitians to the abuse Black people faced during slavery.

As we all know, it evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history where that kind of behavior has been used against the Indigenous people of our country, has been used against African Americans during times of slavery, the vice president said last year.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection investigation released in July found that border agents used unnecessary force, and four Border Patrol agents will face disciplinary action . The CBP said its investigation turned up no evidence that the agents had struck migrants with their reins, intentionally or otherwise, a claim that initially fueled anger when the video went viral.