Border Patrol Agent Trainees Can’t Graduate The Academy Unless They Get Vaccinated

The crisis at the border is only getting worse and now U.S Border Patrol is asking agents and trainees to disclose if they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus or to face significant restrictions. They’ve gone so far as to kick unvaccinated trainees out of the academy. Some active agents are still facing uncertainty about their ability to work. And this is all happening during one of the biggest illegal immigration crises in the past century. Not to mention, Border Patrol has continued to struggle from being short-staffed. While Congress has pushed that CBP staff should be at least 21,370 strong, hiring and retention problems have kept it 10% lower than they should be.

After the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the Department of Homeland Security Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers imposed a rule that would bar unvaccinated Border Patrol trainees from graduating from the academy.

Jeffrey Hammes, the president of the National Border Patrol Council in Big Bend, Texas, wrote a memo to members announcing that those who are unvaccinated and partially vaccinated will be removed from training until they agree to be fully vaccinated. The ban would be placed on unvaccinated trainees for at least 120 days, or four months. They said it could continue based on the Delta variant and infection rates.

“This is being done despite the fact that there are no active cases of COVID-19 at the Border Patrol Academy. Many of those unvaccinated trainees at the Academy, after being told that they would be removed from training if they refused to get the vaccine, still refused,” the memo reads.

Agents were asked to register with the Department of Homeland Security’s Vaccination Status System, which asks them to disclose their vaccination status within 10 days. They can either select the option of fully vaccinated, not fully vaccinated, unvaccinated, or decline to respond altogether.

Border Patrol has even continued to pick on unvaccinated trainees by sending them all to the busiest place on the border to work indoors and process migrants. They work in cramped tents where hundreds to several thousands of people are held at a time. One Border Patrol agent, who wanted to remain anonymous, shared that all of the trainees that chose to remain unvaccinated were sent to report to RGV to process illegals. The agent said that the untrained trainees were being punished for doing something with their choice by “being sent to the epicenter.”

Most agents have argued that the matter should be a personal choice and not a one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government. Other federal agencies have also been pushing draconian vaccine mandates, including the Department of Defense. They recently imposed a mandate that all employees get vaccinated.

NBPC National President Brandon Judd called it “another example” of the administration not caring about border security. He wrote an email explaining how they are understaffed as is, with more agents in processing than patrolling the border. He said refusing to allow trainees to graduate puts them “even further behind” in securing the border.

The number one person put in charge of securing the border is Vice President Kamala Harris and she has not been doing so good either. Former President Donald Trump called out VP Harris’s “disaster’ of a border, along with abandoning Joe Biden as the debacle in Kabul continues. He talked about Harris’s strange visit to Vietnam as the chaos unfolds, adding that Joe and Kamala got a “lucky break” when the Supreme Court reinstated Trump’s Remain In Mexico policy.

“The border is looking great now because compared to Afghanistan, the border is being well-run. But it’s the worst border we’ve ever had, and I gave you the best,” Trump said.

VP Harris has hit one of the lowest ratings of vice president in the polls, dating back to Gore in 1993. The border has been abandoned by the President, his administration, and even the ‘woke’ federal agency leaders. They are too busy ensuring that the Border Agents get the jab while processing a surge of unvaccinated and COVID-friendly migrants. It makes no sense.