WASHINGTON — The Chief of U.S. Border Patrol, the agency responsible for safeguarding America’s borders and increasingly involved in immigration operations under the Trump administration, announced his resignation on Thursday.
Michael Banks’ resignation was revealed during a Fox News interview and subsequently corroborated by the Department of Homeland Security. This marks another leadership change among the officials executing President Donald Trump’s stringent immigration policies, as the administration seems to be adjusting its strategy.
“It’s just time,” Banks stated, according to a Fox News report. He added, “I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure disastrous chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott expressed gratitude towards Banks for his contributions “during one of the most challenging periods for border security.”
The White House has not yet issued a comment regarding Banks’ resignation.
At this moment, it remains unclear who will succeed Banks. During his tenure, Banks led an agency central to Trump’s prominent immigration enforcement initiatives, although he maintained a lower profile compared to other officials like Gregory Bovino, a now-retired figure known for his public role in city operations.
CBP is one of the federal agencies that participated since last year in a series of immigration enforcement operations, carried out primarily in cities governed by Democrats -an effort that triggered a spike in arrests and led to the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year at the hands of federal immigration officers.
Banks’ resignation takes place two months after Markwayne Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, became homeland security secretary. DHS oversees CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.
Banks is stepping down at the same time that ICE is also going through a leadership transition. Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, is leaving later this month and will be replaced by David Venturella, who worked for years for private contractors before returning to government service.
CBP was established in 2003 and handles customs, immigration, and agricultural regulations to secure U.S. borders.
Banks returned to the Border Patrol last year after a long agency career that had never landed him in its senior ranks. His star had risen as border czar to Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, during a period when illegal crossings reached record highs and the state launched a multibillion-dollar enforcement surge that led to turf battles with the Biden administration.
Banks kept a relatively low public profile as arrests for illegal crossings that have plunged to their lowest levels since the mid-1960s, a trend that began toward the end of that Democratic administration.
Banks did not appear publicly at the Border Security Expo this month in Phoenix, an annual conference at which government officials update contractors on the state of the border. Scott, who was Banks’ supervisor, is a close ally of Trump border czar Tom Homan and has acted more as the agency’s public face.
In the interview with Fox News, Banks said that after 37 years, “it’s time to enjoy the family and life.”
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