The new Trump administration plans to replace the career official currently leading the agency responsible for stopping illicit migration of migrants and drugs with Texas’ border czar.
Mike Banks has been the driving force behind Texas Gov. Two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that after Donald Trump takes office, Greg Abbott, who spearheaded Texas Gov.
Banks will replace the current Border Patrol chief Jason Owens. Owens is a career employee with 28 years of experience. Two U.S. officials have told CBS News that Owens will retire in April from his government service.
Owens stated that the chance to be Border Patrol Chief was “the greatest honor I’ve ever received” in an internal message to agents sent on Thursday, which CBS News obtained.
Owens wrote: “I will leave the country with a deep sense of optimism for its future, and ours.” “I’ll take comfort in knowing that you stand on our frontline between the innocents and the evil.”
Banks’s appointment would represent a departure in the Border Patrol’s general practice, which is to have leaders who are government career officials and not political appointees.
Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Official, Banks is a key figure in Texas’ aggressive efforts to counter what it has argued as the Biden administration’s failure to secure along the southern border despite record numbers of migrants crossing.
Since March 2021 Texas have bussed thousands of migrants into major Democratic-led U.S. Cities, sent to the National Guard fortifying the Rio Grande banks with razor wire, and assigned troopers on criminal trespass charges to arrest migrants.
The country also tried enacting a law on immigration to arrest and jail immigrants suspected of illegally entering the country, but that measure has been blocked in court.
Banks, as Border Patrol chief would supervise the agents in green who are responsible for apprehending illegal migrants who enter the U.S. between official entry points or those who arrive by sea to Florida and other coastal areas. In recent years, rank-and-file border patrol agents have grown dissatisfied with the Biden immigration policy.
A U.S. official stated that Banks will join the second Trump Administration in some capacity shortly after Trump’s inauguration, along with Rodney Scott. The president-elect chose as his CBP Commissioner.
Scott served as Border Patrol chief under the Trump administration until the Biden administration ousted him in spring 2021. Scott, as CBP commissioner would supervise Border Patrol but also Customs and Immigration officials at airports seaports and land crossings. This position requires Senate approval.
The incoming Trump administration plans to hire Tom Homan as its border czar. This is a new White House post. Homan will play a major role in executing what Trump promised would be the largest deportation campaign in American history.
In the last four years, illegal border crossings have dropped to a four-year low due to span class=”link”>a data-invalidurl-rewrittenhttp=”” href=”https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden/asylum_limits/usmexicoborder/”>asylum limits/a>/span> President Biden’s June announcement and Mexico’s efforts in stopping migrants from trekking north Asylum Limits President Biden’s June announcement and Mexico’s efforts to prevent migrants from crossing north have led to an illegal border crossings plummeting to a 4-year low.
