U.S. Customs and Border Protection is removing the top Border Patrol official in Western Texas and New Mexico following months of reports about deplorable conditions at federal immigration holding facilities in the region, according to several officials.
The two law enforcement officials, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak with media, said U.S. Border Patrol in Washington decided to pull Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull and transfer him to the Detroit sector. The El Paso Sector, one of nine along the southwest border, made the announcement in an email Wednesday.
The change comes two weeks after former Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan took over as the commissioner of CBP, a 60,000-person Department of Homeland Security entity.
El Centro Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez has been tapped to oversee the region’s 2,400 personnel. Chavez has been in the Border Patrol 24 years and served at headquarters as deputy chief for operations under the law enforcement operations directorate. She served 10 years in San Diego and then transferred to Washington. She returned to San Diego as a senior regional official before moving to Spokane, Washington, and later El Centro, California.
CBP later confirmed the changing of posts shortly after this story was published, but said each change was a “temporary duty assignment.”
“El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent (CPA) Aaron Hull will begin serving as Interim CPA in Detroit Sector on a Temporary Duty (TDY) assignment on July 29. Multiple members of the Border Patrol’s senior leadership team are currently rotating on TDY assignments in both Headquarters roles and senior field positions nationwide,” a CBP official said in a statement.
The Washington Examiner has exclusively reported several instances during three trips to El Paso since January in which local Border Patrol agents and union officials said conditions at facilities and planning for the care of those in custody were sub-par and needed to be improved.
In June, the Washington Examiner exposed the sector was holding hundreds of adults in 100-degree heat in a fenced area outside the Paso Del Norte Station. The issue first came into the spotlight in April when another outlet reported families being held in a caged area under a nearby bridge because there was no more space inside the facility.
The Paso Del Norte Station was the same facility a DHS inspector general report released in late May found was holding 900 people, despite only being fit for 125 occupants. A Border Patrol supervisor from the El Paso region told the Washington Examiner 2,000 people had been on the premises the day before the inspector general’s team visited May 7 to 8.
In another instance, unaccompanied children being held at the Clint station, one of 11 in the region, left behind handwritten messages on their portable mattresses indicative of the plight of children in federal custody. The same facility was reported by the Associated Press as holding hundreds of children despite being fit to hold
Since late May, two contracted doctors working at the Santa Teresa and El Paso stations, where illegal immigrants are held following arrest, walked out while on the job because of the conditions.
The sector has separated some detainees by nationality due to conflicts between groups. As part of that action, it moved Cuban adults 120 miles west of El Paso to Camp Ramsey Forward Operating Base. Officials said some Cuban adults were being held up to a month before being transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to a lack of immediate bed space at ICE facilities.
The union has advocated for adhering to detention conditions outlined in the Flores settlement agreement, which includes a statement that people be held no more than 72 hours.
Two children died while in custody of El Paso Border Patrol in separate incidents last December.
