Overview
- Banks, who led the Border Patrol for 16 months, resigned effective immediately on Thursday, and the agency gave no reason.
- He was appointed by President Trump in January 2025 after serving as Texas border commissioner and was viewed as an ally of ousted Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem.
- The change lands as ICE acting director Todd Lyons plans to leave at month’s end and nominee David Venturella, who previously worked for private prison operator GEO Group, is set to take over.
- During Banks’s tenure, agents were deployed into U.S. cities using aggressive arrest tactics that triggered clashes with residents and two fatal shootings by federal officers.
- The White House cites a steep drop in recorded crossings, with government data showing about 86,000 apprehensions from February 2025 to January 2026 versus 956,000 the year before.