National Border Patrol Council, Local 1613 (San Diego, CA), has created a new section entitled “Honor Last”. This section of our website will expose individuals in the Border Patrol chain of command who appear to have forgotten that the Border Patrol motto is “Honor First”. Individuals who we cite in this section will typically have one thing in common: they place their career before everything and everyone else.
Although we were unable to find any written record pertaining to how “Honor First” became the official Border Patrol motto, we can only assume it was due to Border Patrol leaders in the past who understood the importance of placing honor before everything else, including their careers. Although the term “honor” has many different meanings, we found one definition that appears to match the intended use of the term in the Border Patrol motto:
“Honor (n): honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions: a man of honor” (Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved October 01, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/honor.)
Unfortunately, far too many Border Patrol officials, who are assigned to management positions in the Border Patrol at this time, have mistakenly decided that their career is more important than honor. They seem to have forgotten that “Honor First” means that they will place honesty, fairness, and integrity first when speaking about the Border Patrol and illegal immigration, when creating or promoting policies like the National Border Patrol Strategy, or when developing internal policies that affect Border Patrol Agents who work in the field.
Instead, these individuals place their career at the top of their priorities and shamefully advocate policies that have very little impact on illegal immigration, but do have a significant negative impact on Border Patrol Agents. They mislead the public, the media, and politicians regarding illegal immigration and border insecurity. They sanction and/or benefited from a promotion due to nepotism, cronyism, and/or the good-ole boy system. Some may quietly retire only to return as a “rehired annuitant”, knowing full-well that the pay they receive as a “rehired annuitant” is far more than they should be receiving for the work they are performing.
Overall, the individuals who will be reported in this section wantonly espouse “Honor Last” in their current or past positions within the Border Patrol. To discuss these individuals and/or recommend an individual for the "Honor Last" section of the website, please visit our message board and post your message under the "Honor Last" folder.
Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar - "Honor Last"
Chief David Aguilar is recognized as the leader of the "Honor Last" society for numerous reasons, most of which were cited when the National Border Patrol Council announced the vote of "No Confidence":
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Chief Aguilar shamelessly promoted a guest worker program as a means to reduce the flow of traffic at the borders. He had the audacity to stand before Border Patrol Agents and accept legislation that would grant guest worker permits to illegal aliens living in the United States. According to Chief Aguilar, why would we [U.S. citizens] stop comprehensive immigration reform just because it addressed four percent of the current U.S. population [illegal aliens].
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Chief Aguilar continues to advance the National Border Patrol Strategy regardless of the failures, which are proven by one simple fact: the number of illegal aliens residing in the United States steadily increased since the strategy was first implemented in 1994. (http://www.desertinvasion.us/data/invasion_numbers.html).
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Chief Aguilar continues to promote terrorism as the number one priority of the Border Patrol, while Border Patrol Agents around the country recognize that illegal immigration is still the number one priority and if and when a Border Patrol Agent apprehends a terrorist, that apprehension will be subsequent to apprehending illegal aliens. Chief Aguilar plays the "terrorism" card to unilaterally implement policies that have very little impact on illegal immigration and/or terrorism and to unilaterally abrogate policies that benefit Border Patrol Agents in the field.
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Chief Aguilar reduced the authority of Sector Chief Patrol Agents and restricted their ability to negotiate and communicate with local union officials. Chief Aguilar said he did not want a sector Chief to have to deal with Union officials in one local proposing to implement a policy that was negotiated in another local. If a Chief in a sector cannot handle a task this simple than that person should not have been promoted to a Chief Patrol Agent. Ironically, Chief Aguilar provided the Labor Employee Relations (LER) Kingdom unfettered authority over all matters raised by the Union and stripped that authority away from Chief Patrol Agents in the sectors. Since LER officials have never worked as Border Patrol Agents, they have very little understanding of the policies that affect us and very little empathy toward Agents in the field.
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Chief Aguilar focuses far too much attention on the quantity of recruits and not enough attention on the quality of new recruits. In his quest to meet the goal to hire all 6,000 new agents, Chief Aguilar is turning a blind-eye to the quality of agents being hired and sent to the sectors from the Academy. Chief Aguilar's efforts in the recruitment area will undoubtedly result in an increase in corruption in the future.
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Chief Aguilar has failed miserably in efforts to improve the retention of experienced Border Patrol Agents. He advances policies which negatively impact Border Patrol Agents who work in the field. His efforts in this area will most likely cause further spikes in attrition in the near future.
The above list is not a comprehensive list of the issues that led to the vote of "No Confidence" and his position as the leader of the "Honor Last" society.
Chief Patrol Agent Carlos X. Carrillo - "Honor Last"
Carlos X. Carrillo, Chief Patrol Agent for Laredo Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol (pictured above) recently admitted that the Border Patrol is no longer concerned with illegal immigrants. The Union has openly said this was happening ever since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. Agency officials continually tell employees that our primary mission is the detection and apprehension of terrorists attempting to enter the United States. During his recent visit to the San Diego Sector, Chief Aguilar said that illegal aliens are not the priority of the U.S. Border Patrol. Therefore, although Chief Carrillo may not have been as politically savvy with his explanation, he basically reiterated what has been said by Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officials since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Although newspapers are reporting confusion among the rank and file since Carrillo made his statements, the fact remains that there has been confusion regarding the mission of the Border Patrol ever since the Department of Homeland Security was created. This slip by Carrillo further substantiates the Union's vote of "No Confidence" against Chief Aguilar. Read the related news article.
Jose Olivas - "Dishonored"
Jose Olivas, former Border Patrol Agent in San Diego Sector, recently plead guilty to one count of conspiring to smuggle aliens and one count of conspiring to launder money. Olivas faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. We hope that Olivas receives the maximum penalty for this despicable act. See the U.S. Attorney's press release. (10-15-07)