Our Open Border: The Leaders of Customs and Border Protection and DEA Must Take a Public Stand

This article first appeared in New English Review.

With the Title 42 Covid-related provision about to expire, our already porous border is about the get dramatically worse. Yet, the Biden administration and the feckless head of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, refuse to even acknowledge there is a problem. The result for our Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents is frustration over not being allowed to do their jobs rather than having to merely process phoney asylum-seekers and send them on their merry way. For our DEA agents, in addition to all the other problems they have to deal with- heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, etc, now they have to deal with a fentanyl epidemic that is killing over 300 Americans a day. Fentanyl is mostly smuggled in from Mexico, where it is produced using precursors smuggled from China into Mexico. Fentanyl alone is sufficient reason to secure our border-and reinforce our ports of entry with more detection dogs, for example. Yet, our border remains open. Our Border Patrol is undermanned, and morale is through the floor.

I have noted that the head of the CBP agents' union (Customs and Border Protection Council), Brandon Judd, is speaking out regularly about the lack of support from the Biden administration. As I understand it, he is still an active agent, so I assume his position entitles him to speak candidly in representing his agents. In addition, this piece is currently appearing on the official website of the Customs and Border Protection Council.

So now it is time for the heads of CBP and DEA to go public. As for their respective superiors, Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland, we can forget about them. They are lost causes and marching in lockstep with Biden. What I am calling for is for CBP acting Commissioner Troy Miller and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram to publicly demand that the Biden administration secure the border. If Biden refuses, they should tender their resignations-publicly.

I know nothing about Mr. Miller other than he is a career Customs and Border Patrol agent. Although I am a retired DEA agent, Milgram came on the scene as administrator long after I retired. She comes from a legal background and previously served as the US Attorney for New Jersey. Through the grapevine of retired agents, with whom I am active, I have heard positive things about Ms. Milgram. That is more than I can say about some other former DEA administrators. Some were respected and some were not. Thus, no criticism of either Milgram or Miller should be implied here.

Of course, to even speak out publicly about the current administration's unwillingness to secure our border and the enormous damage it is causing would surely cause both of these leaders to lose their jobs either by being immediately fired by Biden and his henchmen or taking the stand of resigning in protest. It would be an act of courage, and there are no consequences for me in suggesting it. But drastic times call for leaders to take courageous stands. I would like to see Miller and Milgram show the same courage as Brandon Judd in speaking out publically.