The U.S. Border Patrol has a new chief. What Rosario 'Pete' Vasquez's leadership might look like

The U.S. Border Patrol has a new leader: Rosario "Pete" Vasquez has been named chief of the agency. He’s spent more than two decades working for the Border Patrol, including time in both the Yuma and San Diego sectors.

Paul Ingram, senior reporter with the Tucson Sentinel, spoke to The Show about Vasquez and what his leadership might look like.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Paul, good morning.

PAUL INGRAM: Hey, good morning.

MARK BRODIE: So, who is Rosario Vasquez?

PAUL INGRAM: So, yeah, Pete Vasquez, he’s a longtime agent. As you said, he’s been around with the agency for about 26 years. He’s served across the southwestern sectors, northern sectors. He’s also been with headquarters folks. He’s a graduate of their BorStar, or the Border Search Trauma Rescue Unit. And he’s just he’s been an agent for a long time.

MARK BRODIE: And what do we know about sort of what he might be bringing to this leadership position?

PAUL INGRAM: Sure. I mean, I think that’s an interesting question. I mean, there right now we have a, you know, big shakeup in leadership at DHS. And so, DHS is the parent agency of Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection.

And, you know, recently the Secretary Kristi Noem was essentially pushed out of the agency. We also have there was the chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, who also suddenly retired. So, there’s been a series of shifts.

Now, the big question is ... why why did that happen? And also, what’s that going to look like in the future? I mean, one thing we have to keep in mind is that there’s been the big immigration crackdown, and Border Patrol has been part of that and has been part of those big pushes, especially in Los Angeles and especially in Minneapolis.

And so, you know, does this mean that this is a return to form, a return to the Border Patrol’s usual business, or is this somebody else who’s going to kind of operate, you know, as the Trump administration is wanted to do with bigger immigration crackdowns? I think that’s a big open question.

But it’s very clear that Vasquez is somebody who’s long been with the agency and understands the job and is probably more of a return to form for the agency, rather than someone like Michael Banks.

MARK BRODIE: Well, I mean, you mentioned the the big open question. It seems like there might be kind of a question in terms of what his marching orders might be from his bosses, given all the turnover with the higher-ups there.

PAUL INGRAM: Absolutely. I mean, one thing to keep in mind is that we have Tom Homan, who’s the, as they call it, the border czar, who’s really said that immigration crackdowns will continue. But he’s really hinted at the idea that this is going to be led more by ICE and more of a kind of, you know, arrest of individuals, small operations, and not the really big operations that you see lots of people in tactical gear getting into, cleaning out crowds, throwing tear gas, and really getting into it.

As we saw with Greg Bovino, who was the kind of commander at large, who was in charge of operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis and New Orleans. Greg Bovino has been forced out of the agency completely. You know, Michael Banks is out of, out of the agency.

And so, now we have Vasquez. So, the question, yeah, is how does he actually operate inside the agency? It really depends on how the Trump administration wants to continue the immigration crackdowns. But I think we’ve seen in the last few months that things at least have gotten quieter. We don’t see the big operations like we saw in Minneapolis.

MARK BRODIE: Is there anything from Vasquez’s time, you know, more than two decades as I mentioned, in the Border Patrol, that gives any kind of indication in terms of maybe what kind of reputation he has with his colleagues or ... how sort of the the rank and file feel about him running the show?

PAUL INGRAM: I mean, I think he’s one of those people that comes from, I mean, Border Patrol is a, is in some ways an insular agency. They very rarely have outsiders. The really the only exception is Mark Morgan, who was a former FBI agent, who was appointed by the Obama administration.

Everyone else comes up through the agency. They’re longtime agents who get to lead the agency. And he has a pretty good reputation among agents, among rank and file. People like him and see him ... as a pretty good chief and a pretty good answer to who should be in charge of this agency.

You know, it’s a, it’s not a huge agency in some ways. It’s about 20,000 agents, couple hundred thousand ... dozens or few thousand in civilian employees, and it stretches across 20 sectors. So, it’s a big — it’s a decent-sized agency that ranges over a lot of territory, but he’s not somebody that’s sort of outside the scope of what you’d expect for someone to become chief of the agency.

MARK BRODIE: Sure. Now, I mentioned he had spent some time both in the Yuma and San Diego sectors, but he also has experience on the northern border, and it sounds like north of the border.

PAUL INGRAM: Yeah, he’s definitely somebody — I mean, he just came from the Blaine sector, which is the sector that kind of covers Washington state. He was the chief of that sector for a good while. And he’s also somebody that has international postings. He was a trade liaison. He’s been somebody who’s been around, and that’s kind of what you expect with the chief of the Border Patrol.

It’s not just someone who is, say, a hard charger in, you know, in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas, but you usually see someone who’s had some of the international scope, who understands part of the trade, part who also understands the headquarters part, which is its own complex, I think, its own complex kind of culture, too.

So, you also see almost always the chiefs, especially the last four or five, have been people who have that kind of experience. But he certainly has worked in Canada. He’s worked in Mexico. He understands the the scope of the job is not just defending the border.

MARK BRODIE: So, what will you be watching for? And maybe more to the point, what are other folks, you know, sort of in and around southern Arizona looking for to kind of glean, you know, what his priorities might be, what his style might be? What might happen that could be different with him in charge?

PAUL INGRAM: I think the real thing is to see how Border Patrol is used in terms of, of doing the immigration crackdowns. If they’re, you know, working with ICE and we see them in, you know, uniform and, you know, in tactical gear showing up to houses or, or appearing, or if we see them going back towards operating at the border.

You know, the other thing to keep in mind is of course that this is a period of historically low apprehensions. Most agents are not particularly busy. But their agency is also building a border wall, and it’s pretty clear I think from Vasquez that, you know, this is someone who’s going to continue that, continue all the programs that the Trump administration. He’s going to keep doing it because he’s, I think, a leader that they want and a leader that they expect to do the things that they want them to do.

MARK BRODIE: All right. Fair enough. That is Paul Ingram, senior reporter with the Tucson Sentinel. Paul, thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

PAUL INGRAM: I appreciate it.