The US Border Patrol chief, Mike Banks, has resigned with immediate effect, according to an announcement on Thursday. Banks oversaw the most aggressive militarization of the US southern border in recent history under the Trump administration.
Resignation and Reaction
In an interview with Fox News, Banks stated, "It's just time. I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, most disastrous, most chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen." Rodney Scott, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, expressed gratitude for Banks's decades of service, noting that during his tenure, the border was transformed from chaos to the most secure border ever recorded.
Prostitution Allegations
The resignation comes weeks after the Washington Examiner reported that six current and former Border Patrol employees accused Banks of regularly paying for sex with prostitutes during trips to Colombia and Thailand over more than a decade, and bragging about it to colleagues. The allegations were reportedly investigated twice by CBP officials, with one inquiry ending abruptly while former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office. CBP described the matter as "closed" last month, stating the allegations dated back more than a decade and were reviewed years ago. The agency declined to comment further when contacted by the Guardian.
Banks's Role in Immigration Enforcement
Banks took over as Border Patrol chief in early 2025 and quickly became central to the Trump administration's controversial immigration enforcement efforts. He oversaw a dramatic expansion of prosecutions for unlawful border crossings, intensified coordination between Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the rollout of broader interior enforcement operations nationwide.
National Defense Areas
A key part of Banks's agenda was the creation of so-called national defense areas along the southern border. In April 2025, under his leadership, the administration designated large stretches of federal land as military zones and transferred jurisdiction to the US Army. By mid-2025, these zones covered nearly a third of the entire US-Mexico border and were patrolled by at least 7,600 troops.
Exodus of Trump Immigration Officials
Banks is the latest senior figure involved in Trump's immigration crackdown to leave the administration. Noem was fired in March, and Gregory Bovino, the public face of the deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, was demoted earlier this year before retiring. In a November 2025 interview with Newsmax, Banks stated that Border Patrol agents would "go anywhere in the United States" to apprehend undocumented immigrants and that the agency was assisting ICE in 25 cities, with plans to expand to more cities daily.
