Border Patrol chief out day after Trump border fence decree
ASSOCIATED PRESS
People passed graffiti along the border structure in Tijuana, Mexico on Wednesday. President Donald Trump moved aggressively to tighten the nation’s immigration controls Wednesday, signing executive actions to jumpstart construction of his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall and cut federal grants for immigrant-protecting “sanctuary cities.”
WASHINGTON >> The Border Patrol chief is leaving the agency on the heels of President Donald Trump’s announcement of an ambitious plan to build a massive wall at the Mexican border and hire 5,000 Border Patrol agents.
It was not immediately clear whether Mark Morgan resigned or was asked to leave.
Customs and Border Protection said today that Morgan’s last official day in office will be Tuesday. But a U.S. official and a former official said Border Patrol agents were told today that Morgan was no longer with the agency.
The U.S. official wasn’t authorized to discuss the move before a public announcement and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The former official asked not to be identified before a government announcement.
Morgan was named to the post in June and took office in October. The former FBI agent briefly led the internal affairs department at the Border Patrol’s parent agency before heading the agency of roughly 20,000 agents.
In a statement, Kevin McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection’s acting commissioner, praised Morgan for “his unwavering dedication to our border security mission” and “lifelong career in service to the nation.”
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Morgan leaves office only seven months after being named the first outsider to lead the agency since it was founded in 1924.
From the start, he clashed with the Border Patrol’s union, which endorsed Trump early and forcefully during the presidential campaign. The National Border Patrol Council had advocated for an insider to lead the agency and sharply criticized Morgan at almost every turn.
The former official said Morgan was not at work yesterday and did not attend a gathering at the Homeland Security Department with Trump and newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.
During that visit Trump singled out the union’s president, Brandon Judd, while pointedly avoiding mention of Morgan. Judd served on Trump’s transition team.
The union was incensed when Morgan told a Senate hearing Dec. 1, in response to a question from Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., that he supported a comprehensive immigration overhaul, which is often interpreted to include a path to citizenship for people who are in the country illegally. Morgan clarified his remarks in a note to Border Patrol staff the following week.
“I want to be clear what my position is regarding immigration reform,” Morgan wrote. “I do not, as some have suggested, support what is often referred to as ‘blanket amnesty.’ This assertion could not be further from my position. I encourage everyone to listen to my testimony.”
Despite pressure from the union, many agency officials said Morgan appeared to embrace the job. Less than a week ago, the first message on his new Twitter account read, “Chief Morgan here — excited to use this account to share the latest news and events of the #BorderPatrol with followers.”
40 responses to “Border Patrol chief out day after Trump border fence decree”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
LEGAL immigration is good. ILLEGAL immigration is bad. When Democrats and liberals say lump both groups into “immigrants” they’re trying to obfuscate the real issue.
They did not say that. Alternative opinion, pick and match.
They love to pander to illegals while giving the middle finger to legitimate US citizens and legal US residents. It’s all a ploy to get massive votes.
Whose votes?
The votes of Latinos who are citizens and the votes of illegal Latinos who Democrats hope will one day become legal residents and subsequently naturalized citizens.
But aren’t those citizen Latinos citizens who have every right to vote? And didn’t Trump pander to the uneducated, white, southern population?
And quite frankly there are thousands of “illegals” who do deserve to be citizens, they come here, work hard, and want to be Americans. Agreed that there is also a criminal element, but so too are there citizen criminals.
Yes, advertiser1, Latino citizens have every right to vote. I do not believe anyone is questioning that. The issue is Democrats pandering to illegal Latinos in the belief they will get the votes of citizen Latinos. I do not agree that people who come here in violation of our laws deserve to become citizens just because they work hard. If they want to be Americans as you claim, they would not wave Mexican flags in our faces and hold up protest signs written in Spanish.
IRT EtAlavera, fully agree with your post. The cleaning of the opala has begun towards Making America Safe and Great Again.
So, what did Morgan do, or not do which makes him opala?
Morgan was appointed by Obama. Guilt by association. Obviously he had to go.
@ kuroiwaj
Agree.
#DrainTheSwamp
Eta, Dragon, Instead of pontificating on your typical bull, why don’t you try making comments about Morgan? You know, whether is was good at his job, or why he resigned…something..please
Draining the Swamp?
So…….where is the Truth?…..forced out or kicked out? too hot in the kitchen or iced out by the Unions?
The union endorsed the Chump and he freezes their hiring and wages. The thanks that they got was the finger up the as-. Good for them!
You mis-quoted. It should say not “Chump” but Odumbo and Killary. Just Yesterday a large group od Union heads met with Trump and will back his Immigration and new jobs strategy
So what? Apparently he was not doing a very good job. Next batter up!
So, please tell us all how you arrived at your conclusion.
Why are you asking? You can ask yourself the same question. No need to troll.
Read between the lines. Apparently Morgan’s idea of “comprehensive immigration overhaul” did not embrace Trump’s planned wall, so he was “shown to the back gate during the night….”
So now conservatives like unions?
So was missionaries illegal immigrants?
To be an illegal immigrant means a person comes into a country that has specific laws prohibiting such action. When the missionaries arrived in 1820, Hawaii had no immigration laws, so NO, the missionaries were not “illegal immigrants”, just visitors who came to do good….and did VERY WELL!
silly statement..they were invited in. Please read actual history.
@SueH, don’t debate with these dwarfed minded individuals with room temperature IQ
You’re right. They were good, their children and descendants not so good.
No .. but the unions like Trump’s “America first” policy and so do I.
Good – We need people who will enforce the laws
What laws was Morgan not enforcing?
You tell us!
What a witty response…almost as good as nanny, nanny, boo, boo
“YOURE FIRED”
Anyone under the OBAMA regime should go unless the current administration wants to keep them..protocol.
Almost garans if you were under the OBAMA regime you as good as ________ (Fill in the blank).
Sorta like a cancer…you need clear out out all the cancer cells.
IRT Keonigohan: You’re right…I was reading all the comments and finally you wrote the obvious. Anyone who doesn’t understand or agree, has likely never been in business or in a responsible position of a large organization. Good comment.
Who cares, another flunky will just replace him.
Flunky dont care, cause Flunky goin make big bucks.
In 2013, by vote of 68 to 32, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that included $46.3 billion for border security, including $8 billion for 700 miles of fence, $4.5 billion for surveillance technology and implementation, and $2 billion more if the initial flood of cash was not enough. An additional 19,200 agents would have been hired for the Mexican border. Republican House leadership refused to bring it to a vote because they couldn’t stand the idea of Obama signing the bill. Instead of taking the biggest step in history toward heightened border security, they wanted to keep the issue alive for the 2016 election and blame Obama for a problem that they themselves refused to solve.
It’s not that simple. The issue is what would the former President order all those new agents to do once individuals are caught. With all his new agents and measures he could say “see, the border is secure”, while the illegal population (I guess you’d call them “educated” voters because they all vote Democrat) continues to grow.
Below you say “Trump lied. He has no reason to intentionally lie. Here’s an example of an intentional lie. Do you recall Harry Reid saying Romney didn’t pay taxes? Reid admitted he lied but was proud of his statement because Obama got elected. I’m sure you agree he should not have lied, right?
Trump lied about Philadelphia murder rates, and the mayor called him out, demonstrating that Trump’s statement was both false and an “insult” to the Philadelphia police force.
“Our police officers have worked tirelessly and with great personal sacrifice to get Philadelphia’s crime rate down to its lowest point in forty years, while also successfully implementing reforms to strengthen police-community relations and uphold the rights of all our residents. Our homicides are, in fact, slowly declining, and while we are not satisfied with even our current numbers, we are handicapped by Republican refusal to enact any kind of common sense gun control and by their obsession with turning our police officers into ICE agents – which will prevent immigrants from coming forward to provide critical witnesses statements that can put dangerous criminals behind bars.”
If immigration issues are on the table, is there some point when the Trump administration will look into the Compact of Free Association that is currently in place with certain Pacific Island nations? How the COFA impacts Hawaii and our rising health care costs? Not to mention the resistance to assimilate by members of the COFA nations that are using the agreement to come over to Hawaii and the mainland and the impact that is having on our social fabric?