U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, formerly Texas’ border czar until his appointment by the second Trump administration last year, is stepping down from his position, three Department of Homeland Security sources told CBS News on Thursday.
He informed staff on Thursday of his retirement from Border Patrol, the federal agency that oversees the green-uniformed agents in charge of intercepting the illicit movement of people and drugs into the U.S., including along the border with Mexico.
Banks is the latest top Trump administration immigration official to leave in recent months. In March, Kristi Noem was replaced by then-Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary. Her ouster came amid growing backlash to her response to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, as well as her role in controversial television advertisements.
Outspoken Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino also retired in March, after being sidelined following the controversy around the Minneapolis crackdown. Meanwhile, Todd Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is set to step down at the end of May, and will be replaced on an interim basis by a longtime agency official.
Banks told Border Patrol employees in a farewell message on Thursday that “it is time for me to retire and return home to Texas to focus on my family and ranch.”
“What we have accomplished together in the last year and a half is nothing short of amazing,” Banks wrote. “You, the men and women of the Border Patrol, took the United States Border from the most chaotic and unsecured border in the history of this great Nation and have delivered the most secure border this country has ever seen.”
Banks was tapped to lead Border Patrol in January 2025, when President Trump returned to the White House, pledging to launch a nationwide deportation blitz and seal the U.S. southern border after years of record illegal crossings under the Biden administration.
The appointment was unprecedented, since the Border Patrol chief position had long been filled by career agency officials. Banks took the helm of the agency as a political appointee of the second Trump administration, after serving as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border czar. He had previously served in mid-level roles at Border Patrol.
Banks noted in his farewell message that he served in the U.S. Navy for a decade.
During Banks’ tenure as chief, Border Patrol was tasked with playing a bigger role in immigration enforcement far away from U.S. borders.
Border Patrol teams led by Bovino carried out sweeping and often indiscriminate immigration roundups and stops in major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis. Those “roving” patrols were largely discontinued after the fallout from the Minneapolis operation.
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