Border Patrol Union Votes No Confidence in Agency Chief

WASHINGTON – The 100 leaders of the nation's 11,000 U.S. Border Patrol's rank-and-file agents on Monday are releasing a no-confidence resolution against Chief David V. Aguilar for his failure to back up two agents now serving time for shooting a drug-smuggling illegal alien.

In a unanimous decision agreed to on Sunday, the top leadership of the National Border Patrol Council lambasted Aguilar for his silence on behalf of Ignacio Ramos, 37, and Jose Alonso Compean, 28. The two are serving 11 and 12 year prison sentences, respectively, as a result of testimony given by a a drug-smuggler who claimed his civil rights were violated when he was shot in the buttocks trying to run across the Mexico border after dropping 743 pounds of marijuana during their pursuit of him.

According to The Washington Times, which first reported the no-confidence vote, NBPC President T.J. Bonner said Aguilar's lack of support for field agents has caused attrition among the ranks, plummeting morale and a growing disconnect between field agents and leadership.

Click here to read The Washington Times story.

"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," Bonner told the newspaper. "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."

Among other clauses, the resolution accuses the chief of "shamelessly promoting amnesty and a greatly expanded guest-worker program as key elements of the solution to the illegal immigration crisis" despite intense opposition from front-line agents "who risk their lives enforcing our nation's immigration laws." It also criticizes the agency's willingness "to cut corners in the hiring and training" of new agents.