Former President Joe Biden practically dismantled the U.S. Border Patrol during his four years in office, forcing President Donald Trump to push for sweeping retention and hiring programs to restore the force, according to the union that represents 16,500 agents.
In advance of a House border hearing today, the executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council said that Trump is planning to hire 10,000 agents and offer retention bonuses to bolster the force that is facing a coming wave of possible retirements, depression, and historic levels of suicide after four years of being ignored.
“While agents were doing their best to hold on during the worst and most tragic days we’ve ever experienced as Border Patrol agents, a large chunk of the country, media, Congress, and the Biden administration did everything they could to demonize us,” said the union’s Jon Anfinsen in an advance copy of his testimony.
Anfinsen was blunt in laying out the condition of the current force as short-handed, poorly equipped, and so physically and mentally whipped that the agency is bracing for massive resignations if Trump’s changes aren’t backed by congressional appropriators.
He said the Border Patrol is about 19,500 strong. Of those, Anfinsen said more than 2,500 are eligible to retire immediately, and another 4,000 agents will be eligible to retire in the next four years.
“In total, we are looking at nearly one-third of our current workforce potentially leaving in the next four years,” he said.
Their equipment is also in poor shape, especially the transportation pool. He said that half the vehicles in the Border Patrol are “retirement-eligible. Of those vehicles, approximately 1,100, or 7%, are on track to be replaced, but they will take anywhere from nine months to two years to receive. The average time from ordering a new vehicle to its delivery is approximately 403 days.”
SEE THE LATEST POLITICAL NEWS AND BUZZ FROM WASHINGTON SECRETS
The mental health of agents is also a problem, due partly to being blocked from doing their job during the Biden years. He said that suicide is such a problem that the agency has hired a suicidologist.
The bottom line, according to Anfinsen: “The overall demonization of an entire agency have led to CBP and the U.S. Border Patrol being unable to hire enough agents to account for attrition for several years. And when we do have a year where we happen to have a net gain, it is only by a relative handful of agents because too many incumbent agents have decided they had enough and retired as soon as they were eligible to do so.”