Mark Morgan, the US Border Patrol Chief, is to leave his post. This was reported by Kevin K McAleenan, acting commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection agency. McAleenan thanked Morgan for his dedication and service to the US in a statement released yesterday.
Morgan will leave the post at the end of this month. Sources say there was no particular cause for his departure other than a new direction in policy by the new Trump administration. Unions representing officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol backed Donald Trump during his Presidential election campaign. On Wednesday, during a visit to the Department of Homeland Security, the President told the head of the National ICE Council, Chris Crane, and Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, that they were about to become very busy.
A former official from the Department of Homeland Security allegedly claims that the union wants Border Patrol to be run by an insider from the agency. Morgan took over the role as Border Patrol Chief last year, after 30 years in public service, which included two decades with the FBI, and a stint in the Marine Corps.
In November, Morgan was the subject of an attack piece in the right-wing media outlet, Breitbart Texas. The union that represents Border Patrol agents and their support staff described him as a ‘disgrace’ who lacked the necessary will to secure the US border and crack down on undocumented immigrants