Border Patrol agents who are mocking President Joe Biden’s immigration policies are reportedly considering early retirement as migrants flood the southern border in unprecedented numbers.
The administration has frustrated on-site personnel with policy changes, including a ban on the use of the phrases “illegal alien,” “alien,” and “assimilation,” the Washington Examiner previously confirmed.
Six officers out of dozens interviewed by Reuters expressed an interest in walking off the job early due to frustrations on rule changes that differ markedly from those of former President Donald Trump’s administration.
The retirement numbers could outpace those from 2020 if the sentiment continues.
“We have so many people coming across, and then, we’re out there killing ourselves to catch them, rescue them, or whatever it is, and then, they’re being released,” said Rosemarie Pepperdine, an agent who indicated she plans to leave. “Why even bother?”
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing thousands of agents, lashed out against Biden for the migrants that overwhelmed facilities.
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“I can confidently say that President Biden owns this crisis,” Judd said. “It is his fault.”
Some agents reportedly called Biden “Let ‘Em Go Joe,” while others, such as Gil Maza, a former agent who left in March, mocked the government body’s name by selling coins that read “U.S. Welcome Patrol.”
“It sheds a little humor on the situation,” Maza said of his merchandise. “And it’s something that helps us, I guess, mentally and emotionally cope with the situation because especially right now, the situation is pretty dire out there.”
Many in the Border Patrol have taken issue with Biden’s pick to helm the organization, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus. The top law enforcement figure in 2014 stood alongside demonstrators in Richmond, California, and hoisted a sign that read “#Black Lives Matter” during protests over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two black men killed in officer-involved shootings.
In 2017, Magnus lashed out against the immigration policies of Trump and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He berated the administration for its crackdown on sanctuary city policies and praised proposals from the Obama era.
“As the police chief here, I’m deeply troubled by the Trump administration’s campaign against ‘sanctuary cities,’ which refuse to turn over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities,” he wrote in a New York Times opinion article on Dec. 6, 2017. “Washington is trying to retaliate against them by withholding funding for things like crime prevention, drug treatment and mental health programs.”
Judd opposes Magnus as the leader of the organization following a 2017 incident in which he declined to set up a command post to track down an illegal immigrant who allegedly escaped from a hospital as protesters gathered to oppose law enforcement action.
Magnus “refused to work with the agency that he’s going to be overseeing,” Judd said. “That alone, in my opinion, should be a disqualification.”
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Top brass within the organization also lashed out against some of the rule changes.
“Over the years many outside forces on both extremes of the political spectrum have intentionally, or unintentionally, politicized our agency and our mission,” Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott wrote in the memo to acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller regarding the administration’s decision to change the language referring to illegal immigrants, Reuters reported.
CBP declined to comment when asked by the Washington Examiner.
