White men are in charge of 21 of the 22 Border Patrol outposts on the northern, coastal, and southern borders despite the agency being comprised of mostly Hispanic employees and having vowed to prioritize diversity under President Joe Biden.
“One Hispanic Chief out of 22. That one is female. So an organization with so many Hispanic males they cannot find any qualified to be a chief?” a senior Border Patrol official at its Washington, D.C., headquarters who spoke on the condition of anonymity wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner. “Of course we shouldn’t promote based on race, but there are a lot of things that seem off.”
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Current and former Border Patrol officials found the revelation especially troubling given that leadership vowed to address the concern following a June 2021Washington Examiner investigation, which found Hispanics were not being promoted to senior posts despite 51% of all agents identifying as Hispanic.
The Washington Examiner reviewed lists of chiefs and confirmed with officials at headquarters that all but one were believed to be non-Hispanic. The analysis revealed that Chief Gloria Chavez of El Paso, Texas, is the only Hispanic agent of the 22 sector chiefs, and she is also the only woman. Just 5% of agents nationwide are women, among the lowest rates across the federal government.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said Dr. Victor Manjarrez Jr., a retired chief who joined in 1989 and was one of the few Hispanic agents promoted to a senior position in the Border Patrol. Manjarrez said not much has changed in terms of who is being promoted, in part because of internal politics.
The Border Patrol is tasked with safeguarding the nation’s land borders by preventing and responding to people who attempt to enter the country between ports of entry. Most illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol are from Latin America. It divides the continental United States and Puerto Rico into 20 regions, each of which has a chief patrol agent as its leader. The Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, New Mexico, and Special Operations Group also have chiefs, bringing the total number of chiefs outside of its Washington headquarters to 22.
Shortly after Biden entered office, the Border Patrol filled 10 vacancies at regional offices that had been occupied by temporary “acting” officials. Just two of the 10 positions were filled with Hispanic agents. The 10 agents who were promoted in May have the highest government classification and pay, known as GS-15.
The senior CBP official who leaked the list of promotions to the Washington Examiner last year cited concerns that the agency’s senior leadership was not taking diversity seriously among management.
“I have some great co-workers who could be great leaders, and they just accept, ‘We’re not going to get the same opportunities,'” the official said at the time.
In an apparent acknowledgment of the shortcoming, the Border Patrol in August 2021 internally circulated a job ad among senior staff. It sought a six-month hire who would be responsible for addressing “gaps in [Border Patrol] diversity, hiring, and promotional practices.” It is not clear if the post was ever filled.
Then-Border Patrol national Chief Rodney Scott said in an interview last June that “many different people are involved to get different opinions and avoid any type of unconscious bias going forward.” Scott added that the second and third in command at the Washington headquarters were Hispanic.
Today, the national chief of the organization is Raul Ortiz. Yet the Border Patrol finds itself in the same conundrum as many years past as it prepares for the next round of promotions to be announced, according to two officials.
Scott said last year that because Hispanic agents are often from the southern border, they do not want to accept promotions to the northern border or Washington, which are prerequisites for moving up.
Agents seeking promotion must pass a written test. A list of the most qualified applicants is compiled, looked over, and then presented to a second panel of agents to review.
Manjarrez said the social hierarchy of agents, or politics, played a significant role and still affects who gets picked for promotions. Agents from the Border Patrol Tactical Unit have historically fared well, while candidates who were not specially trained were passed over, he said.
“It was a running joke if you’re not BORTAC, you don’t have a shot,” Manjarrez said.
Border Patrol cannot take a standoff approach in whom it allows to move up through the ranks, Manjarrez said. Agents who are allowed to enroll in its master’s degree leadership program are on the fast track to senior positions down the road. Paying attention and changing who gets the green light for leadership training will greatly affect its “farm team” down the road, Manjarrez said.
“If the government is going to send you to Naval Postgraduate School, then there’s an expectation that they’ll be ready for a higher leadership position. The question is: Who are we sending to be on this bench?” said Manjarrez, a former Tucson, Arizona, chief during the Obama administration and now the director of the Center for Law and Human Behavior at the University of Texas, El Paso.
The National Border Patrol Council said comments that national President Brandon Judd provided to the Washington Examiner a year ago were still applicable now.
It is “hard for anyone to believe that in an organization that has more minorities than whites, hiring officials haven’t been able to find qualified and talented minorities. The law of averages clearly shows there is a problem,” Judd said.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency in charge of Border Patrol, did not respond to a request for comment.
“I think the problem will continue. People tend to promote those that look like themselves,” the first official said.
