Back on March 18th, I predicted that Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz would be quietly retiring in a few months. He made the mistake of growing a spine and admitting that we do not have “operational control” of the border.

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 Jason Owens (@USBPChief) June 9, 2023

We don’t have control of the border period, “operational” or otherwise. Maybe Ortiz wanted out anyway and this was his way of showing a slight bit of defiance towards Mayorkas.

I wish I could say I was very prescient in my prediction, but frankly it was obvious to all that he was going out the door.

Now, the Border Patrol is about to get a new Chief, one Jason Owens, who currently is in charge of the Del Rio Sector [New U.S. Border Patrol Chief named—will it make a difference?, by Karen Townsend, HotAir.com, June 10, 2023]. (Despite what the article says, Del Rio Sector is not in the Rio Grande Valley.)

"New U.S. Border Patrol Chief named - will it make a difference?"
Jason Owens, the current chief of the Del Rio Sector, will replace Ortiz on June 30th. @penguinponders asks a pertinent question in the headline. I guess we shall soon see.https://t.co/tda3cJtieO

— Gray Wolf (@graywolf442) June 11, 2023

I am sure they vetted Chief Owens thoroughly to make sure he would not show any signs of a spine. I bet they warned him either subtly or blatantly that defying the regime’s Open Borders would get him canned too.

Actually, I am sort of surprised that they did not go outside the Border Patrol to find a replacement. The Obama administration did that when they took career FBI Agent Mark Morgan, then heading the FBI Academy in Quantico, and (with one or two steps along the way) made him the new Border Patrol Chief, the first head of the Border Patrol to come from an outside agency. Morgan was purposely brought in with the hopes that he would find rogue Agents beating the snot out of aliens and crush the Agents [Amid Immigration Debate, New Border Chief Seeks To Turn Around Beleaguered Force, by Lisa Rein, WaPo, September 28, 2016]. Only, Morgan failed to find any because cases like that happen very rarely, and Morgan wasn’t going to make up crap for them. An FBI Special Agent with integrity! I bet it shocked the Obama administration, especially, when you see what’s happening with the politicized FBI now. Of course, Morgan had been an LAPD Police Officer before joining the FBI. The Obama administration should probably have tried recruiting one of FBI’s lawyers from the civil rights branch instead.

I’m deeply skeptical of Jason Owens. It says he is a 27-year veteran of the Border Patrol and that he is “well regarded by rank-and-file agents…,” but they always say that, whether true or not. I doubt he will be defying the Open Borders policy of this administration. If he does, he won’t last long.