Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz will retire on the finish of subsequent month, leaving the company after overseeing essentially the most chaotic border in fashionable American historical past.
Homeland Security introduced the retirement Tuesday night time, after information studies revealed the transfer.
“The Border Patrol is stronger, and our nation is more secure, thanks to his leadership. I will miss his candor, our thought partnership, and our friendship,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned.
In an electronic mail to fellow brokers, the chief mentioned he would retire on June 30. The electronic mail was reported by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
He is the second chief to serve throughout President Biden’s tenure. The first, Rodney Scott, was compelled out in 2021 as he resisted the brand new president’s catch-and-release border insurance policies.
Mr. Mayorkas mentioned Chief Ortiz, who was the deputy chief on the time, was additionally planning to retire round that point however the secretary mentioned he talked him into staying.
“Chief Ortiz agreed to postpone his retirement several times since and the Border Patrol, the Department, and our country have been all the better for it,” Mr. Mayorkas mentioned.
The border numbers beneath Chief Ortiz have been grim, reaching all-time information of 10,000 migrants caught on a number of days earlier this month.
The numbers have improved since then, however are nonetheless common greater than 3,000 a day.
Meanwhile the Border Patrol has needed to fend off a collection of points on Chief Ortiz’s watch, together with a excessive variety of agent suicides and a report variety of migrant deaths.
In September 2021 Mr. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Mayorkas urged brokers on horseback had whipped Haitian migrants attempting to leap the border in Texas. Ms. Harris urged it evoked days of whipping slaves.
A prolonged investigation, nevertheless, would show that no person was whipped.
More not too long ago Chief Ortiz created a “parole” coverage to catch and launch migrants throughout a renewed surge earlier this month. A federal choose blocked the coverage, saying it ran afoul of immigration regulation.
Chief Ortiz has additionally been caught within the crossfire between Mr. Mayorkas and Republicans on Capitol Hill over the energy of the border.
Mr. Mayorkas has known as the border safe, however Chief Ortiz in his personal testimony to lawmakers has challenged that concept, saying in testimony in March that 5 of the 9 sectors alongside the southern border weren’t safe.
But standing alongside Mr. Mayorkas in Texas earlier this month, he re-parsed his phrases to attempt to argue he and the secretary had been in step.
“I’ve been doing this job for 32 years. We’ve never had operational control,” Chief Ortiz mentioned.
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