Tired of being undermined and attacked by the executive branch, Border Patrol agents are threatening to quit the federal agency en masse if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election on Nov. 5.
"I'm not doing this s*** again … four years of hell," one agent, who is not close to retirement, told the New York Post.
Another told the outlet that if Harris is elected, a lot of "guys who can retire will go." If former President Donald Trump wins, however, "they'll stay."
The National Border Patrol Council, the agency's union, endorsed the former president and current GOP presidential nominee in a post on X on Monday.
Insiders say the Border Patrol has experienced plunging morale and subsequent huge turnover in the nearly four years of the Biden-Harris administration.
More than 4,000 employees have left the agency since October 2020, according to the Washington Examiner, leaving approximately 19,000 employees to secure the nation's borders.
Bumping up recruiting bonuses from $10,000 to up to $30,000 and appealing to retired agents to return have reportedly had little impact on the staffing shortage.
Harris and Trump have both promised to address the personnel problem at Border Patrol, if elected, with the former president announcing plans on Sunday to swell the agency's ranks by 10,000 new agents.
Several agents who spoke with the Post on condition of anonymity, however, said that Harris would likely face an enormous staffing crisis at Border Patrol if she is elected to the Oval Office.
"We will have another exodus just because we will have a bunch of 20-year agents saying, 'peace out,'" one agent said.
He also said he expects experienced agents with five to 10 years on the job to seek other employment with their skill sets.
The agent who is not nearing retirement told the outlet he was "absolutely sure" he would exit the agency if Harris is in charge.
"Under this administration, they've done everything they could to make our job as inefficient as possible," one of agents said. "They can't outwardly tell us not to do our job, but when you're watching criminals come in and get released, it sucks."
Sinking morale prompted Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes Border Patrol, to hire a licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified behavior analyst to help bring down the spike in suicides. CBP suffered its worst year in 2022, when 15 agents died from suicide.
Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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