Angry Border Patrol officers lashed out at Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz during what was supposed to be a morale-boosting visit with the two officials in Laredo, Texas, according to a leaked video released Saturday.
“For evil to triumph, good men must do nothing,” an officer argued at Friday’s meeting, the Washington Examiner reported. “Good men do nothing. You allow illegal aliens to be deposited in communities.”
The agents were outraged by reports that illegal immigrants with criminal records are being secretly released into the US, despite a federal law mandating their immediate deportation.
Ortiz acknowledged that border agency morale is at an all-time low.
“I get it, you come to work, you’re frustrated,” Ortiz said. “You are upset because you did not get the desired result. That doesn’t mean you give up.”
“You keep letting criminal aliens into the country,” the unruly officers argued.
“You get bogged down in politics and politics,” Ortiz retorted.
Since March last year, border agents have met at least 165,000 people each month trying to enter the country illegally — more than threefold from 2020, the Trump administration’s last year, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics.
“Under this administration, we have had the highest fentanyl deaths in our country’s history in the past year,” one officer complained.
On Wednesday, Mayorkas got a similar ear from officers in Yuma, Ariz., where an irate officer turned his back on the secretary to express his annoyance.
“I know this administration’s policies are not particularly popular with US Customs and Border Protection,” Mayorkas said. “But that’s the reality and let’s see what we can do within that framework.”
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