Michael Banks, the head of the US Border Patrol, is leaving the agency effective immediately after helping to oversee a dramatic expansion of immigration enforcement operations during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Banks, a career Border Patrol agent who left the agency during the Biden administration in 2023, later served as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border czar, helping to oversee the state’s aggressive border enforcement program along the Rio Grande.
He returned to the Border Patrol as the agency’s chief at the start of Trump’s second term and led the agency during historic drops in illegal border crossings and an expansion of operations into US cities. Fox News first reported the news of his departure.
“I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, disastrous, chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen,” he told Fox. “Time to pass the reigns, 37 years, it’s time to enjoy the family and life.”
Under Banks, the Border Patrol deployed hundreds of agents at a time — alongside Customs and Border Protection officers from other divisions, including elite tactical agents — to assist with immigration arrests in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis.
Banks, who joined the Border Patrol in 2000 after about a decade in the military, also made appearances with former Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino during some of the operations. But Banks generally kept a lower profile. He was notably absent at the recent Border Security Expo in Phoenix, an annual conference where past chiefs have often given remarks.
Some of the operations drew scrutiny after violent clashes with protesters and several shootings involving agents. In January, a Border Patrol agent was among two CBP officers involved in the fatal shooting of Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation.
Bovino resigned earlier this year after being removed from his role leading interior operations and redeployed to his previous job leading a small border sector in Southern California. former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was pushed out in March amid broader scrutiny of spending and overall operations at the Department of Homeland Security. Banks’ departure follows the previously announced retirement of acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Todd Lyons.
(Updates with Banks comment to Fox, additional reporting in paragraphs 4-6.)