U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks has resigned from his position.

“It’s just time,” Banks told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin.

“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,” Banks continued.

“Time to pass the reigns, 37 years, it’s time to enjoy the family and life,” he added.

Fox News explained further:

Banks has previously detailed his upbringing in the small town of Warner Robins, Georgia. He said he was raised primarily by his grandmother, who was on a fixed income, as his single mother struggled to raise his two older half-sisters.

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To help his grandmother pay the bills, Banks said he began working full-time in the summers and part-time during the school year picking peaches, working alongside migrant farmworkers.

According to an interview published on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, Banks said the experience had given him a deep sense of humility and compassion, teaching him what it takes to support a family.

Banks enlisted in the military at 17 years old and served for a decade in both combat and peacetime, overseas and in the U.S., primarily in law enforcement roles.

After hearing stories from CBP agents, Banks applied to the agency in 2000.

According to Washington Examiner journalist Anna Giaritelli, Banks faced recent prostitution allegations.

“A second bombshell report on Border Patrol national chief Mike Banks is said to be coming out today, which prompted DHS Sec. Mullin to meet with Border Patrol’s union chief yesterday, hours before Banks announced he’s leaving,” Giaritelli said.

“We reported weeks ago that Banks had traveled abroad to have sex with prostitutes while an agent. One source said Banks has been on thin ice since then. Banks was part of the Noem/Lewandowski/Bovino/Perez cohort,” she continued.

From the Washington Examiner in April:

The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner.

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Banks “bragged” to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. Banks’ behavior was said to have been investigated by Customs and Border Protection officials twice, including last year, but the investigation ended abruptly while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office, leading to more questions.

“I don’t know how he became the chief of the Border Patrol with his character,” a former Border Patrol agent told the Washington Examiner in a phone call, adding that now-53-year-old Banks had personally pushed him to come along on one of the trips. “He’s going to third-world countries to take advantage of poor f***ing women, which disgusts the h*** out of me.”

Four others said Banks talked freely with his subordinates about his travels and that it was known why he went, making his promotion to the top of the agency last year that much more flabbergasting.

“He would tell people that’s why he was going on these trips — he would go there to engage in activities with prostitutes,” a second person said. “So I think those stories are out everywhere, and you can’t put them away or not give it attention because he was the one telling people about these trips.

“In our line of work, part of what we do is try to combat the trafficking of females, that is part of our job,” the same person said. “It’s counter to what we do or what we should be standing for. If you’re partaking in those activities, you’re supporting the trafficking and exploitation of women.”

 

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