By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks abruptly resigned on Thursday, an agency spokesperson said, adding to turnover among top Trump administration immigration officials in recent months.
No reason was given for Banks' departure, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Banks was allied with former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was fired by Trump in March, a former border patrol official said on condition of anonymity.
Banks, the top official at the agency tasked with securing America's borders, was named to the role by President Donald Trump in January 2025. He worked for border patrol for two decades before leaving the agency in 2023 and becoming "border czar" for the Republican-led state of Texas.
Amid declining public support for Trump's immigration strategy, Banks' departure follows the planned departure of Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons at the end of the month, the retirement of controversial border patrol official Gregory Bovino in March, and expansion of White House border czar Tom Homan's authority overseeing enforcement operations.
This week the administration announced David Venturella, a former immigration official who also worked for the private prison company GEO Group, would replace Lyons.
Trump won reelection vowing to clamp down on illegal border crossings after millions crossed illegally under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. Some 86,000 migrants were arrested at the border during Trump's first year in office from February 2025 to January 2026, down from 956,000 a year earlier, U.S. government figures show.
In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott thanked Banks for his service "during one of the most challenging periods for border security."
"During his time as chief, the border was transformed from chaos to the most secure border ever recorded," said Scott, who heads Border Patrol's parent agency.
During Banks' tenure, the Trump administration surged Border Patrol agents into major U.S. cities, where they used aggressive tactics to round up people suspected of immigration violations and clashed with residents.
Banks maintained a low profile during the contentious city-level operations. Bovino prominently led groups of agents through Democratic-governed cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis.
In his farewell note to agents, Banks said he would "forever be the greatest defender" of his agency.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Katharine Jackson; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by David Ljunggren and Cynthia Osterman)
