MCALLEN, Texas — The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector announced his retirement this week without any advance notice. The chief is stepping down from the top post in the same area that last year saw a humanitarian crisis as thousands of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors flooded across the border.
This week, Sector Chief Kevin Oaks publicly announced his resignation. He relinquished the command of the more than 3,000 agents that he oversaw in this border region.
“I would like to thank Chief Oaks for his dedication to mission and commitment to excellence,” said Michael J. Fischer Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol in a prepared statement provided to Breitbart Texas.
Oaks replaced former USBP Sector Chief Rosendo Hinojosa who led the agency from 2010 to January 2014 when he retired from the force.
During Hinojosa’s term leading the agency, agents began to see a shift in human smuggling routes that shifted much of the human smuggling traffic from western places like Arizona to the Rio Grande Valley setting up the stage for what became the humanitarian crisis during the summer of 2014.
It was during Oaks time as chief that he tried to hold down the fort as the agency dealt with an ever increasing number of illegal immigrants primarily from Central America arriving at the border. This surge quickly overwhelmed the capacity of U.S. government housing facilities.
Despite the urgency of the situation, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson continued to claim that the U.S. Border was the most secure that it had ever been even. It wasn’t until Breitbart Texas released a series of photographs that showed dozens of unac children stuffed into small detention areas that politicians were forced to admit that there was a problem at the border.
While no information has been released as to a reason for the retirement, the announcement comes at a time when the agency is starting to see a return of a spike in apprehensions at the border in what could be the start of a similar humanitarian crisis like the one that took place last year.
While so far the number of apprehensions is below those from last year, various agents who spoke with Breitbart Texas believe that the recent spike is a sign that the border crisis could be starting up again.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas during the arrest of more than 140 illegal immigrants in stash houses in 24 hours, agents have begun to see an increase in apprehensions and in people getting caught at human stash houses. Just last weekend, agents arrested 47 illegal immigrants from Central America in a span of one hour just south of Mission Texas.
In this case, like last years crisis, the immigrants crossed the river and turned themselves in to federal authorities expecting to be released shortly with a notice to appear in court.
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