On June 30, current U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz will retire. On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced his replacement has been named. Jason Owens, who currently serves as the Del Rio Sector Border Patrol chief, has been nominated as the next chief of the Border Patrol.

This is an interesting choice. Owens currently is in charge of the operations in the Del Rio Sector. He has over 25 years of experience with the agency. The Del Rio Sector is in the Rio Grande Valley, the epicenter of the Biden border crisis. Not only has he lived through the chaos and destruction of the porous border that Joe Biden created but he was in place when Whipgate happened. In case you’ve forgotten about Whipgate, a Democrat activist started a vicious lie against the Border Patrol agents on horseback along the Rio Grande River near Del Rio. They were trying to keep control of a large group of Haitians illegally crossing the river to the U.S. side. The Border Patrol agents were using the reins to control their horses, as they do. The Democrat activist lied and said the illegal migrants were being whipped with the reins. It all quickly blew up on social media and the next thing we knew, everyone from Biden to Kamala to DHS Secretary Mayorkas was weighing in and convicting the innocent agents on the basis of a photo on Twitter. The photographer said the agents were not whipping the Haitians. So much for innocent until proven guilty. Mayorkas showed his true character by first speaking up in favor of the agents and then immediately caving and taking Biden’s stance that they must be punished. The agents were relieved of their duty, suspended from their work in the field, and mostly assigned to desk duty. They were all eventually found innocent yet Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas never issued an apology. I’m wondering where Owens was during all this and how he handled it. Did he stick up for the agents or did he immediately kowtow to Biden’s prejudices? I’m not finding anything about his role in the matter, which leads me to think he didn’t really have one.

Ortiz retires with a career scarred by Whipgate. Did he apologize to the agents who lived through this? He has little respect among Border Patrol agents. Morale is at a very low level. That speaks to his leadership.

Apprehensions at the southern border have taken a dip since the expiration of Title 42. It will not last, though, and everyone has been warned that the cartels are re-grouping and will come back stronger than ever to traffic drugs and smuggle human beings across the border.

DHS also announced that acting Deputy CBP Commissioner Benjamine “Carry” Huffman will also retire and will be replaced by Executive Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Field Operations Pete Flores.

Ortiz acknowledges the humanitarian and national security crises that Joe Biden has created along the border with his regular tweets.

Week in Review…
– 7 Agents Assaulted
– 22,143 Apprehensions
– 7,542 Approx. Gotaways
– 238 Rescues
– 50 Rescue Events
– 86 lbs. Meth
– 916 lbs. Marijuana
– 459 lbs. Cocaine
– 71 lbs. Fentanyl
– 26 Firearms
– 7 Sex Offenders
– 3 Bi-National Efforts
– 3 Gang Members

Great work! pic.twitter.com/V9z2BShVaO

— Chief Raul Ortiz (@USBPChief) June 9, 2023

Owens, a 27-year Border Patrol veteran who is well regarded by rank-and-file agents, served most recently as the chief of the Del Rio, Tex., sector, one of the busiest along the U.S.-Mexico border. On June 30, he will replace retiring chief Raul Ortiz, one of several senior leaders who delayed their departures to help manage the expiration of pandemic-related border policies.

In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised Owens as “a talented, selfless, and inspiring leader who is dedicated to the Border Patrol’s law enforcement mission, the men and women who fulfill it, and the country that we all serve.”

Del Rio Sector agents under Owens’s command responded to the mass shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas in May 2022. Though they were criticized for their slow actions that day, as were all the other law enforcement officers on the scene, it should be remembered that it was those agents who ended the massacre. The Border Patrol tactical team killed the shooter. Border Patrol agents from the Del Rio Sector responded and did what local and state law enforcement on the scene didn’t do.

It remains to be seen if changing who is at the top of the leadership chain makes a difference. The department still takes its orders from Joe Biden. He has no desire to secure the border. Typically, a president does a little press briefing and introduces the person nominated to head up an important department to the press at the White House. Not so this time. Biden wasn’t even at the White House. He was in North Carolina with Jill doing some campaign photo ops. Border Patrol isn’t a top priority with this president. It’s why we continue to see a Biden border crisis. He simply doesn’t care.