PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks spoke exclusively in a wide-ranging interview with Local 10 News as encounters at the southern border have fallen more than 93 percent.
Migrant landings and illegal maritime smuggling events in Florida are also down significantly.
“The United States government under President Trump and Secretary Noem has empowered the U.S. Border Patrol to do their job, which is simply to enforce the law,” Banks said.
Local 10 has embedded with the Border Patrol on those enforcement efforts, as agents have arrested people in the U.S. illegally who have lengthy criminal records.
But other undocumented migrants with no state criminal histories are being arrested as well. Under U.S. code, they are also subject to removal.
“We do conduct targeted enforcement. We go after those criminal aliens first,” Banks said. “But if we encounter noncriminal aliens — if they’re in this country illegally — we have a job to do. We have an oath we took. We have laws to enforce. We don’t write the laws.”
The U.S. Border Patrol does not oversee migrant detention, nor does it control deportations.
However, the agency does have the authority to enforce border security anywhere in the United States, which is why agents are operating in cities such as Chicago, working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Thursday, a judge there issued stricter guidelines on use of force after allegations of excessive force during “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Banks pushed back on the allegations.
“One of the ones floating around, very widely put out in the media, is that an agent had someone on the ground, and they felt the agent used excessive force to make that arrest,” he said. “What the media on one side is telling — a false narrative — didn’t tell you is that they rammed those agents with their vehicles.”
Thanks to the administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, Banks said the Border Patrol plans to hire 3,000 more agents nationwide. Many will be heading to Florida, he said.
There will also be more technology, such as drones, to detect maritime smuggling and surveillance.
“We are humane in enforcing our laws, but we will unapologetically enforce our laws,” Banks said.
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