Immigration News, May, 2024

With all the hullabaloo about Donald Trump’s trial, other important immigration events flew under the radar. Down at the border, May was pretty much like all the other months since January 2021---a steady stream of unvetted illegal immigrants that border patrol officers released into the U.S. interior. Throughout the Biden administration, inadequate funding for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have hampered those two vitally important agencies created to keep America safe from her enemies. Moreover, the White House has hamstrung CBP and ICE with orders to minimize their enforcement efforts and ignore their sworn duty to uphold federal immigration laws.

Consequently, more than 4,000 federal agents have left the Border Patrol since October 2020. Twice as many agents have taken early retirement compared to the Obama and Trump administrations. Of the Border Patrol’s more than 19,000 agents, between October 2020 and April 2024, 4,281 federal law enforcement officers left the agency. Early retirements have soared under Biden. Between 2014 and 2020, the number of early retirements averaged 257 per year. Since 2021, the total has more than doubled to an average of 529 agents who chose to retire early.

Matthew Hudak, recently retired second-in-command of Border Patrol, said work for many agents had become comparable to Groundhog Day, arresting illegal immigrants then releasing them into the U.S. rather than detaining or removing them. Continuing, Hudak said it was humiliating for the federal law enforcement agents who had taken an oath to protect the country. Other agents, still active and therefore speaking under conditions of anonymity, told the Washington Examiner that under Biden, “things are the worst they have ever been by far.” One Arizona-based agent said: “Agents are calling in all the time. You always hear, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ or, ‘What’s the point?’ a reference to properly doing their job. Agents are afraid of ending up on the news for doing their job or getting in trouble for doing their job [a reference to the infamous 2021 CBP-Haitian incident in Del Rio, Texas where horse-mounted agents were falsely accused of whipping migrants, but not absolved until months later]. There is no morale.”

In June 2023, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari appeared before a House Oversight subcommittee after the May release of an audit that was sharply critical of the agency’s leadership. “Law enforcement personnel feel overworked and are assigned to duties not germane to their primary mission,” Cuffari said in his written testimony.

Agents looking forward to the CBP’s scheduled celebrations of its 100th year of defending the nation that would have lifted spirts had that simple pleasure abruptly taken away. Early in the planning, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said: “This year, the U. S. Border Patrol reaches its centennial year: a rare milestone marking our ability to overcome every challenge, endure every hardship, and win every battle along the way. It is an homage to our collective resilience across a difficult journey through time. On this important occasion, we recognize, honor, and thank the tens of thousands who have selflessly donned the Border Patrol uniform or stood beside those who have.” El Paso, Texas, where Border Patrol “Station One” opened its doors in 1924, was booked as the celebrations’ central location. Abruptly, however, Owens announced on X that CBP canceled the event.

NBC News reported that friendly relationship which distiller Francisco Javier González and Border Patrol chief Jason Owens and Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sector chief Gloria Chavez developed raised questions about whether the officials disclosed their contact with a foreign national, a requirement for those who receive top security clearances, or whether they accepted gifts that could be a violation of ethical rules. Owens and Chavez were photographed at Tequila Casa de los González in Jalisco at a festive occasion. Plans for González to produce a Border Patrol-branded tequila for the 100th anniversary have been scrapped.

Critics of the Biden administration questioned why an event that organizers had planned for so long was suddenly canceled and wondered if DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas exerted pressure on CBP to cancel the gala. Jose Ibarra, Laken Riley’s suspected killer, entered through El Paso in 2022 so it’s reasonable to assume that DHS would not want to draw attention, even indirectly, to her grizzly killing. Still, questions persisted. “Why is it OK for the [Defense Department] but not the Border Patrol?” one insider said, adding that the Marine Corps and Army hold annual galas that nonprofit organizations and sponsors who have government contracts pay for. “This is the administration coming after the Border Patrol,” concluded one. A CBP representative said that its “Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) personnel lead will lead an investigation into the matter “with the highest standards of integrity.”

If nothing else, Owens and Chavez are guilty of poor judgment. While it remains unclear what the OPR may conclude, Owens and Chavez should never have put themselves in the position where their behavior and CBP’s integrity would become the target of a federal investigation.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org