Border Patrol agents, tired of being attacked and undermined by the executive branch, are threatening to quit the federal agency en masse if Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris wins the race for the presidency on November 5.
“I’m not doing this s*** again … four years of hell,” said one agent, who isn’t near retirement, told the New York Post.
Another agent told the news outlet that if the vice president is elected, many “guys who can retire will go.” However, if former President Donald Trump wins, “they’ll stay.”
The agency’s union, the National Border Patrol Council, endorsed the former president and current Republican presidential nominee in a post-Monday on X.
Insiders say the Border Patrol is experiencing plummeting morale and subsequent massive turnover in the almost four years of the Biden-Harris administration.
According to the Washington Examiner, over 4,000 employees have left the agency since October 2020, leaving around 19,000 employees to secure the nation’s borders.
Increasing recruiting bonuses from $10,000 to as much as $30,000 and appealing to retired agents to return appears to have had little impact on the staffing shortage.
If elected, Trump and Harris have both promised to address the personnel issue at the Border Patrol. Trump announced plans Sunday to add 10,000 new agents to the agency’s ranks.
Border Patrol agents say if Harris is elected, there will be a huge staffing crisis
However, Several Border Patrol agents who spoke to the Post anonymously said that VP Harris would likely face an immense staffing crisis at the Border Patrol if she is elected to the nation’s highest office.
“We will have another exodus just because we will have a bunch of 20-year agents saying, ‘peace out,'” said one agent.
He additionally said he expects experienced agents with five to ten years on the job to look for other employment that matches their skill sets.
The agent, who isn’t near retirement, said he was “absolutely sure” he would leave the agency if Harris assumes the presidency.
“Under this administration, they’ve done everything they could to make our job as inefficient as possible,” said one of the agents. “They can’t outwardly tell us not to do our job, but when you’re watching criminals come in and get released, it sucks.”
Plunging morale prompted Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes the Border Patrol, to hire a board-certified behavior analyst and licensed clinical psychologist to help bring down the spike in suicides. Customs and Border Protection suffered its worst year in 2022 when 15 agents died from suicide.
