This Shocking Letter from Retiring Border Patrol Agents Should Be a Wake-Up Call for All Americans

January 6, 2022

By William Davis

In case anyone needed a reminder of what the Biden administration has done to the Border Patrol’s morale, a dispiriting letter from a retiring agent should be a reminder.

The letter was written by Mustafa Joseph, a Border Patrol agent of more than a decade who had finally had enough of the Biden administration’s malfeasance at the border.

“As the Patrol and the U.S. Government at large slip more and more into the unrecognizable, it’s unclear what I took an oath to defend starting from way back in 1996 as a Navy Corpsman. The Supreme Court, the last line of Constitutional clarity, is in disarray as well,” Joseph wrote to Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.

Joseph’s letter is heartbreaking, but not surprising. For months, reports have indicated sinking morale among Border Patrol agents, who have been hamstrung by an administration intent on importing as many future voters favorable to their side as possible. This administration has done everything in its power to make the lives of these agents harder, including ending successful Trump-era policies that kept the border secure, and enacting COVID-19 vaccine mandates for these agents, while exempting illegal aliens from these same mandates.

The Biden administration also orchestrated a vile smear against border patrol agents last year, after dishonest activists accused several mounted agents of mistreating Haitian migrants. In his letter, Joseph also decried the entitlement bestowed upon illegal aliens by the Biden administration and the press.

“The undocumented have gone from a fear of infringing the law to brazenly inquiring about what’s taking so long with their right to unconditional assimilation. Have we become ‘Handmaids’ to their cause? Incomprehensible…. Particularly as the concept of ‘law’ becomes an increasingly nebulous moving target,” Joseph said.

Joseph is absolutely correct about the sense of entitlement emanating from illegal aliens and their supporters, and his point is a critical one. Illegal aliens attempting to come to the U.S. know as well as anyone that the current administration is trying to facilitate the demise of America’s immigration system. That’s why migrants coming to the border have frequently been seen wearing shirts with Biden’s campaign logo, with the words: “Biden, please let us in.”

That’s because Joe Biden has proposed granting amnesty to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. (the real number is likely closer to 20-30 million), and has scolded Americans who oppose his anti-borders ideology as having essentially forgotten where they came from.

Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign website states: “Unless your ancestors were native to these shores, or forcibly enslaved and brought here as part of our original sin as a nation, most Americans can trace their family history back to a choice–a choice to leave behind everything that was familiar in search of new opportunities and a new life.”

The accusation that border security advocates are somehow betraying their ancestors is pure nonsense, but it is an epithet that anti-borders advocates use against their opponents constantly.

Their position is that since most Americans had ancestors who immigrated here, those people should shut up and acquiesce to the current lawlessness at the border. Many illegal aliens feel entitled to come to the U.S. because the most powerful people in the country tell them that they are. This thinking sums up why so many illegal aliens feel they have a right to “unconditional assimilation” into the U.S., and that paradigm is toxic and demoralizing for Border Patrol agents trying to enforce the law and keep the country safe.

Largely because of how hamstrung and demoralized Border Patrol has become, the situation at our southern flank is still extremely dangerous. While the surges have abated a bit during the winter months, the threat level remains high. In December, Border Patrol apprehended a suspected Saudi Arabian terrorist at the border, a sign that jihadists may be exploiting our open border.

Illegal aliens in the country are also still committing crimes, including 26-year-old Coyoami Miguel-Ruiz, a DACA recipient who was just recently sentenced to 28 years in prison after he produced child pornography and used his social media account to entice underage girls to perform sex acts on him. The origins of such crimes can be traced directly back to the reckless and permissive attitude towards border enforcement by those sworn to protect us.

All of this danger comes at a time when agents are resigning due to fatigue and an administration that is actively working against them. The exhaustion Joseph expressed in his resignation letter is likely felt by many agents, and should be a wakeup call to all Americans about the crisis we face.

William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute , a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.

Also published at: William Davis, This Shocking Letter from Retiring Border Patrol Agents Should Be a Wake-Up Call for All Americans, Townhall, January 5, 2022.