Border Patrol Chief Savors Recruitment Boom, Soaring Agent Morale

Retired Border Patrol agents are returning to the agency amid soaring morale levels, according to U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks.  

“I’m signing off on stacks and stacks” of applications of retired agents who want to return to the Border Patrol, Banks said.  

The chief, speaking at an event in Washington, D.C., on Friday hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, said that after more than 30 years in the Border Patrol, he has “never seen morale this high.” He added:

Morale wasn’t this high during the first Trump administration. People are excited. They’re happy to be able to go out and do their jobs again. 

Federal law enforcement’s mandatory retirement age is 57, and the average age of retirement for a Border Patrol agent before the Biden administration was 56-1/2, according to Banks, but during President Joe Biden’s tenure, the average age of retirement fell to 50, the earliest age an agent is permitted to retire.  

Additionally, thousands of agents who had submitted forms to retire have now pulled their paperwork back and decided to remain in the Border Patrol after President Donald Trump’s election victory, the chief said.  

Border Patrol has also launched a program for agents to return who left the Border Patrol during the Biden administration and went to other law enforcement jobs. 

Banks himself left the Border Patrol in 2023, explaining, “I did not feel that I could honor the oath that I took as a Border Patrol agent and abide by the policies that the Biden administration put into place.” 

Banks served as the Texas border czar until he returned to the Border Patrol in January and was made chief.  

For agents who joined the Border Patrol during the Biden administration, a new program called Back to the Basics is “pairing up these younger agents that have only been allowed to process for four years with those seasoned agents,” Banks said.  

“We have watched our recruiting numbers set records every month since January,” Banks said. “Last month was another record-breaking [month] with almost 12,000. We believe we’re going to break over 14,000 applicants this month.” 

The “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that Trump signed into law in July includes $4.1 billion to hire additional Customs and Border Protection personnel, including 3,000 new Border Patrol agents. 

Border Patrol encounters with illegal aliens have fallen by about 90% since Trump returned to the White House in January.  

“The reason why your border is secure now,” Banks said, “is because this administration, from President Trump to [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem] and to [CBP] Commissioner Rodney Scott is, they’ve empowered the Border Patrol to go out and do exactly what we know how to do, which is enforce the law.”  

The post Border Patrol Chief Savors Recruitment Boom, Soaring Agent Morale appeared first on The Daily Signal.