Agents have “no confidence” in new U.S. Customs and Border Protection chief
Agents have “no confidence” in new U.S. Customs and Border Protection chief
http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/def...9e459760d6.JPG Dave Gibson
Immigration Reform Examiner
December 23, 2011
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has just named former Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar as the new head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency that overseas the Border Patrol as well as other law enforcement entities.
Aguilar will replace outgoing CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin who will retire on December 30.
Napolitano also named CBP field operations chief Thomas Winkowski to the position of acting deputy commissioner.
Napolitano told reporters, the two officials “bring decades of experience on the front line and will continue their proven leadership of the men and women at CBP as they protect our country against terrorist threats, secure our borders and foster lawful travel and trade.”
Perhaps, Napolitano was not aware that Aguilar’s “leadership” abilities became somewhat questionable when the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), the union which represents all of the U.S. Border Patrol’s rank-and-file agents unanimously gave a no-confidence vote to Chief Aguilar in 2007.
Shortly after the vote, then NBPC president, T.J. Bonner told The Washington Times: “Front-line Border Patrol agents who risk their lives protecting our borders have every reason to expect that the leadership of their own agency will support them. When this does not occur, and instead they are undermined by their so-called leaders, no one should be surprised when they express a loss of confidence in those managers.”
A few months ago, the Liberty News Network has just released a video which shows U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar being taken to task by one of his own agents on the chief’s stated support for ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ (amnesty for illegal aliens).
Chief Aguilar is visibly agitated as he stands before a gathered group of agents in what was billed as a sort of ‘town hall meeting,’ as the agent continues to repeat Aguilar’s quotes over the years on the issue of amnesty.
Though Aguilar denies supporting amnesty per se, it is simply a case of semantics as he has consistently voiced his support for a guest worker program for illegal aliens as well as concentrating his agency’s resources only on drug traffickers and OTMs (other than Mexicans).
Aguilar’s support for the prosecution of several Border Patrol agents by the Bush administration for so-called civil rights violations against illegal aliens (even drug smugglers), such as those of Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean have also contributed to the lack of support the rank and file agents have in their own boss.
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