Blaze News original: Border Patrol whistleblower's career on the line after spotlighting trafficking horrors

Border Patrol Agent Zachary Apotheker faces an ongoing internal investigation that could potentially lead to his termination after he publicly expressed concerns about how open-border policies are fueling the illegal child trafficking crisis in the nation.

Apotheker started his Border Patrol career at the southern border and moved to the northern border's Swanton Sector last year.

Since sharing his concerns during podcast appearances and interviews with media outlets, he says that Customs and Border Protection has retaliated against him despite whistleblower protection laws.

Apotheker has warned that there are "many ways to beat the [immigration] system" as it currently exists. His biggest concern is the disturbing increase in child trafficking.

'I'm assuming they're going to move to terminate me.'

He noted that the Border Patrol's ability to look into the criminal background of foreign nationals crossing the border is limited.

"We don't have their criminal history," Apotheker told Blaze News.

"The adults may not show up with documents, but then the children may not show up with documents, or maybe false documents. So we're just taking their word that this child is now this person's child — that's their biological parents," he said. "We don't even know if the adult that they're with is a criminal."

"We really can't definitively say, and we can't track them," he continued. "Now, imagine if they're unaccompanied [minors]."

"We're just sending them somewhere, so maybe a relative's house. How do we even know that it's the relative's house? And then who's following up on it?" he questioned.

In early September, Apotheker appeared for an interview on the "Fresh&Fit Podcast," where he shared how illegal immigrants exploit the current border policies to traffic humans and drugs into the United States.

Shortly after the podcast's release, he received a cease-and-desist letter from Customs and Border Protection.

Around the same time, Apotheker was also featured in James O'Keefe's documentary, "Line in the Sand," where he spoke out about child trafficking.

In the film, Apotheker mentioned the horrific slaying of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a University of Georgia nursing student, who was murdered while jogging near campus. The man charged with Riley's murder is a 26-year-old Venezuelan national who was in the U.S. illegally and is a suspected member of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua.

Apotheker told O'Keefe, "When a girl like Laken Riley is jogging, she's top of her class at nursing, and we sign those f***ing files, man, that's blood on our hands."

"If it was your mother or your sister or your aunt, how would you feel?"

He told Blaze News that CBP questioned him about his appearance in the documentary film.

Apotheker responded to CBP officials, writing, "I participated in Line in the Sand Film on duty in uniform, as did many other Border Patrol Agents."

In the film, several other Border Patrol officers spoke with O'Keefe while on duty.

He also added that he provided "no CBP information to any non-CBP employee" and gave "zero information that is not public."

Apotheker noted that the "only compensation" he received for participating in the film "was a free, clean, and clear" conscience.

"I told the truth to the American Public and fulfilled my duty to the Constitution of the United States of America," he wrote.

In his letter to CBP officials, Apotheker highlighted that the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged that over 300,000 children are missing. He further pointed out that CBP's failure to collect biometric data on children makes correctly identifying them "effectively impossible."

According to the Department of Homeland Security, "As the regulations currently exempt certain aliens from the collection of biometrics, including those under 14 and over 79, as well as individuals in certain visa classes, CBP does not use fingerprints to confirm the traveler's identity in these cases."

Apotheker told Blaze News that the agency stripped him of his government-issued firearm the same week he responded to the questioning.

'It's like these little mind game tricks. ... They found a way to do what you can't prove.'

On October 11, he received a memo from a CBP division chief informing him that he is "currently under investigation ... for allegations related to serious breaches of integrity and/or security policies."

The agency's memo explained that it was "in the best interest of CBP to temporarily revoke your authority to carry a Government-issued firearm." However, it claimed that the firearm revocation was "not a disciplinary action."

Without a firearm, Apotheker was taken out of the field and instructed to report to work "in business casual attire."

The memo was signed with an indecipherable handwritten signature belonging to a Swanton Sector division chief. No corresponding printed name to identify the individual was listed.

Image Source: Zachary Apotheker

Apotheker told Blaze News, "They pulled my gun, which takes me out of the field. I can't do my job."

"It's kind of rare for them to take your gun for no other reason and say it wasn't disciplinary but not take your law enforcement credentials," he added.

Soon after receiving the memo, Apotheker was served another notice, this one compelling his sworn testimony on October 17 before a Department of Homeland Security special agent.

Apotheker was informed that he would be questioned about his "general misconduct/disruptive behavior."

He attended the compelled administrative hearing but was advised by his legal representation not to answer any questions.

"I feel I've done nothing wrong," Apotheker stated. He acknowledged that wearing his Border Patrol uniform during the podcast appearance breached the agency's policy. However, he explained that he only did so after filing a whistleblower report through the DHS' Office of Inspector General and speaking to a member of Congress, and "nothing was done."

"I used discretion," he said. "The country needs to be made aware of this."

He explained that his legal counsel, obtained through the Citizenship Journalism Foundation, instructed him not to participate in the CBP's "retaliatory investigation."

"We just didn't want to legitimize that meeting," he told Blaze News. "I don't feel like I should be being investigated. If anything, I feel like they should be asking me what I know and how to resolve it."

The day after the hearing, Apotheker received a notice informing him that his law enforcement authority had been revoked, citing his "fail[ure] to respond to questions asked of you during an administrative interview conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Professional Responsibility."

"Your refusal to participate in a compelled interview called into question your ability to perform the law enforcement functions of your positions as a Border Patrol Agent," the memo read.

Apotheker was required to hand in the rest of his Border Patrol gear, including his badge, body armor, and radio.

"Consequently, you will be placed on administrative duties immediately," the memo continued. "Your access to the building and computer systems will be modified to limit your accessibility only to those areas necessary to perform your assigned administrative duties. Since you will not be performing law enforcement duties, you are not to wear your uniform and will adhere to business casual dress code standards."

Again, the memo mentioned, "Please note that this is not a disciplinary action, but is necessary, given the nature of the allegation(s) against you, in order to preserve the trust of the public we serve."

The memo contained the same division chief's signature and, again, no printed name.

Image Source: Zachary Apotheker

Apotheker told Blaze News that the agency changed his schedule and significantly cut his hours.

"Not only did they cut my overtime, which is a big amount of money, but from switching me from nights to mornings, what they're basically trying to do is apply financial pressure to me because you get a 10% night differential for every hour after 6 p.m.," he said.

Apotheker stated that his pay was slashed by at least $25,000-$35,000 with "all the tricks they did." He feels the changes were "100% retaliatory," despite the agency's insistence otherwise.

"They would do everything they could to make it more difficult for me," he said.

'We're gonna battle this out.'

Apotheker recounted that even before his equipment was confiscated and his law enforcement powers were stripped, his superiors seemed to go out of their way to make his time at work more challenging, including stationing him in the most remote areas of the sector. After driving for hours to reach his assignment, he would soon be summoned back for last-minute meetings, he said.

"They'd send me out to the furthest part of our area. I drive out there for two hours, they call me back. Now, it happened consistently," he said. "Every day, I knew that I was gonna get called over the radio to come in for another meeting where they could have just had the meeting then and there."

"It's like these little mind game tricks," Apotheker added. "They found a way to do what you can't prove."

He explained that before he left the southern border and relocated to the Swanton Sector, he "was known as someone that was not happy with what was going on in Arizona."

"And when I came up here, I felt like that followed me — that I was a person with a reputation that would speak out against what's going on instead of just doing it and shutting up," Apotheker added.

He stated he got the impression that his leadership "wanted to make it known to me that that wasn't going to be tolerated up here."

Apotheker told Blaze News that Border Patrol Agents have "worked harder on the northern border than we have down south because, per capita, we have less agents to do so much work."

"We have a lot of drive-throughs up here, which means people will physically take a vehicle and drive from Canada into America, which should be a massive crime. You're not just crossing; now you're taking a vehicle across. You're driving past an international boundary," he explained. "If it's a family, sometimes they've taken us on chases."

The Swanton Sector is the most heavily trafficked northern border section, covering 24,000 square miles.

In October, Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia announced, "Border Patrol Agents in Swanton Sector have apprehended more than 19,222 subjects from 97 different countries since October 1, 2023, which is more than its last 17 fiscal years combined."

Apotheker is concerned that the CBP's internal investigation will ultimately result in his firing.

When asked what is next for him, Apotheker told Blaze News, "We're gonna battle this out."

"I'm assuming they're going to move to terminate me," he continued, but he noted that "there's a lot of different things that could happen."

"I don't want it to be about me," Apotheker added. "I want it to be about what's going on the last three and a half years, which everybody knows, and I want to expose the people that are trying to remove me for telling the truth. And that's my goal is that I'm not going to give in."

Neither CBP nor DHS-OIG responded to Blaze News' requests for comment.