Data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that almost a quarter of Border Patrol agents have left the agency under the Biden administration.
Between October 2020 and April 2024, 4,281 agents have left the Border Patrol.
In the seven years prior to Biden taking office, the agency lost an average of 996 agents annually.
Early retirements have also increased since Biden became U.S. president.
Between 2014 and 2020, an average of 257 Border Patrol agents retired early each year. Since 2021, about 529 agents have chosen to leave as early as possible.
CBP has over 19,000 agents in total.
A senior Border Patrol official told the Washington Examiner, “The administration is so bad for morale. I’m not trying to be political. I’m just speaking facts. It’s become so political. Catch and release is demoralizing for agents.”
A recent report found that suicide rates of Border Patrol agents have also increased.
Retired chief border agent of Yuma, Arizona, Chris Clem told the Free Press that many agents are “numb” to the horrors encountered at the border.
“We all knew under this administration there’d be a change,” he explained. “We expect that every time there’s a political change. But when it turned out that the job became nothing more than processing and releasing these people, that was very hard to take.”
In 2022, 14 CBP agents committed suicide, almost double the number from before Joe Biden became president.
