Former BP Agent and Texas Border Czar Mike Banks Appointed as Trump’s Border Patrol Chief; With Trump Considering Texas’ ‘border czar’ to Head Border Patrol, Cornyn Praises Pick

Former BP agent and Texas border czar Mike Banks appointed as Trump’s Border Patrol chief

Texas border czar Mike Banks has been tapped to be the next US Border Patrol chief, sources told The Post Thursday.

Banks, a longtime former border agent himself, will serve as the federal agency’s 27th head under the Trump administration, according to a source familiar with his appointment.

He is set to replace Jason Owens.

Border Patrol sources told The Post that while Owens was well liked, agents are open to new leadership.

“An outside chief that wasn’t a career ladder climber might be exactly what we need to get us squared away again,” said one agency source.

“If this new guy’s got the balls to do what’s needed, then I’m all for it,” said another source.

Brent Smith, the attorney for Kinney county, which is situated along the Texas border, said in a post on X that “there is no one more qualified” for the position than Banks.

Until now, Banks has been serving as the Lone Star State’s first-ever border czar — a position created by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023 to deal with the unprecedented influx of illegal migrants pouring across the US border.

“For me, the #1 priority is to make the State of Texas the least desirable place for illegal immigration to cross,” Banks said when he took on the newly created role.

Abbott, at the time, said Banks’ focus would be responding to “President Biden’s open border policies.” —>READ MORE HERE

With Trump considering Texas’ ‘border czar’ to head Border Patrol, Cornyn praises pick:

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, in a call from Washington with Texas reporters Thursday, said he expects Donald Trump to issue “100 or so executive orders” on the first day of his new administration, many of them related to immigration and border security, and to roll back many of the policies initiated during the Biden administration.

Trump will return to the White House after his inauguration Monday, and Cornyn, R-Texas, heaped praise on the president-elect’s apparent choice to head the U.S. Border Patrol — Gov. Greg Abbott’s hand-picked border czar Mike Banks — saying he understands the complexities of securing the nearly 2,000-mile stretch that divides the United States from Mexico, largely along Texas’ southern border.

“I know Mike, and I think it’s an inspired choice,” Cornyn said after the New York Post first reported that Trump plans to promote Abbott’s point person for border security. “Nobody understands the border better than Texas, and Mike Banks has done a good job for Gov. Abbott.

“I like the idea we’re going to have a Texan in that job.”

Cornyn noted that the Texas border, which extends 1,254 miles from Brownsville to El Paso, includes an ever-changing terrain from the mostly flat farm country in the lower Rio Grande Valley to the desolate and cavernous landscape of the Big Bend. Having overseen that as the state’s border czar, and before that as a U.S. Border Patrol agent, will give Banks the perspective needed once his purview expands to include New Mexico, Arizona and California, Cornyn said.

During his 25-minute conference call that included a question-and-answer session, Cornyn praised the Senate’s recent bipartisan passage of an immigration-related bill known as the Laken Riley Act. The legislation is named for the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was killed by a Venezuelan immigrant, who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and who had once been arrested for shoplifting.

The federal bill would let federal authorities detain immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal status and are suspected of committing theft, burglary and other related crimes. The Senate overwhelming adopted an amendment offered by Cornyn that requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants without permanent legal status who have been accused of assault on a law enforcement officer. —>READ MORE HERE

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