August 12, 2024 7:00 am
EXCLUSIVE — Border Patrol agents expressed more distrust of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris than President Joe Biden and said they will not vote for her in November in interviews with the Washington Examiner.
None of the more than a dozen Border Patrol agents questioned by the Washington Examiner said they would cast a ballot for Harris because they do not view her as supportive of the organization and its congressionally mandated mission.
“I would never vote for her,” the first agent said.
“These past four years have been a nightmare for the patrol, and it would be another four years of the same — and probably worse than Biden, honestly,” a second agent said.
Agents are not allowed to speak with the media, and those who spoke with the Washington Examiner did so on the condition of anonymity. The agents ranged from rank-and-file members to supervisors to the upper echelon of management.
Their reasons for bucking Harris ranged from viewing her as a radical to her lack of engagement with personnel to personal and religious beliefs. However, all agreed that a Harris administration would render the United States worse off from a security standpoint than it is now.
Several agents who will be or already are eligible for retirement are already discussing early retirement and whether staying on the job would be worthwhile if Harris is elected this fall.
Perception as a radical Democrat
Border Patrol agents said they fear a future Harris administration would “continue the same failed policies as Biden,” which resulted in nearly 10 million migrant encounters nationwide since January 2021 — a record for any point in national history, according to the third agent.
Agents overwhelmingly view Harris as further to the left than what Biden has done as president. One agent pointed to her selection this week of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate as more reason to believe the ticket was not your average pair of Democrats.
Walz has supported overhauling federal agency U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and signedinto law state policies that allowed illegal immigrants to obtain free college tuition and driver’s licenses.
“She will continue or even enhance Biden’s failed policies,” a third agent said. “The vice president pick seems even more radical than her, which is mind-blowing. I view her as leaning left more than Biden.”
A fourth agent added that he imagined Harris would “laugh when she’s confronted about it,” a reference to Harris’s tendency to laugh nervously in some situations.
“We are screwed as a country if she becomes president. The border will never close,” a fifth agent said.
VP role as ‘border czar’
As the number of unaccompanied children, families, and single adults coming over the southern border began to spike within weeks of Biden’s inauguration, Biden tapped Harris early on in his term to address the root causes that citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico were fleeing to the United States.
However, during her tenure as vice president, migrants from around the globe have surged to the southern border to make up for any decline from certain Central American nations.
But Border Patrol agents said she failed to visit them. In a June 2021 interview with NBC News reporter Lester Holt, Harris was asked when she planned to visit the southern border. She retorted that she had not visited Europe yet either.
“She was tapped by President Biden to be the official/unofficial ‘Border Czar’ and failed at that MISERABLY,” the first agent said in a text message. “Aside from that, her overall personality, or lack there of, is not appealing at all. When she speaks in public and goes off script, you get awkward word salads and obnoxious cackling. And finally, I spent 16 years in California. She is a text book ‘California Liberal’ and always will be. No matter how hard the DNC tries to paint her as a ‘moderate.’”
Religious beliefs and personal differences
Other agents who faced suspension and termination by the Biden administration for refusing to get a coronavirus vaccine during the pandemic were haunted by the idea of a continuation of a Democratic White House.
“Nothing has been done to show support for Border Patrol Agents or the mission in the past 4 years,” the sixth agent wrote in a text message. “I fear having another 4 years of the same thing would be even more detrimental to the homeland if Harris becomes president.”
A seventh agent said he would not vote for Harris, but not because of border issues — rather because of his Christian faith and view on abortion. Harris supports rights for women to terminate their pregnancies.
“I think she would be worse than President Biden,” he said. “With Biden I feel like he was actually clueless to what was happening. He acted surprised when he heard certain border issues. I think his handlers were setting policy, not him.”
A ninth agent described Harris as “not a good leader” or “commander” material for the job.
To retire or stay
Agents have lamented since Biden took office that their jobs have shifted in recent years to arresting migrants rather than guarding the nation against national security threats, including terrorists and fentanyl coming into the country.
The number of people arrested entering the country illegally and later found to be on the FBI terrorist watch list has skyrocketed from a handful in years during the Trump administration to more than 150 last year. Fentanyl seizures, as well as the number of people killed after consuming the drug, are at all-time highs.
Four of the agents surveyed said they are presently eligible to retire or would be before 2028. Their lives have been significantly affected by the border crisis with weekslong mandatory details to other states to help process migrants arrested, forcing them to leave their families behind sometimes for months out of the year.
“I’ve learned to put up with the Democrat Administrations,” the fourth agent said. “I’m at the point where I’m in it for me now, not the patrol.”
The third agent said he will stay on if Harris was elected in order to receive his full pension when he retires.
“My retirement fund has suffered from four years of incompetence, it won’t survive four more,” he said. “This is how the majority of agents feel, not all but a majority.”
Others viewed staying on despite being eligible to retire as a sacrifice for other agents who cannot retire.
“I feel the men and women need support and I might actually stay to try and be a voice of reason for the new administration,” the seventh agent said. “My biggest concern is to take care of the agents. Issues like Del Rio Horse Patrol require leadership that will protect agents, not hang them out to dry.”
Border Patrol agents were demonized by Biden and other senior administration officials in September 2021 after a picture of agents on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, went viral. Biden told reporters that the migrants were being “strapped” by federal law enforcement. Agents were eventually disciplined but descriptions by senior officials that migrants were being whipped were clarified as false.
The fourth agent, who is already eligible for retirement, said he has hung on over the past several years out of the desire to serve his country. However, if Harris is elected, the agent said he will “absolutely” retire.
Chris Cabrera, an agent and spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council, the nation’s largest union organization for agents who are not in management, said he agreed with the agents’ reasons for not voting for Harris.
“The whole radical point is dead-on,” Cabrera said. “One of the issues is that this administration has always slow-walked this issue at the border. They denied it, and when they wanted to come down [to visit the border], they’d make sure they go somewhere that was good optics and not look bad for them.”
NBPC Vice President Hector Garza told the Washington Examiner in a statement Friday afternoon that the union “supports President Trump” and plans to endorse Trump “in the near future.”
The Harris campaign and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment.
