There are few common-sense standards employers should abide by. For starters, don’t ask someone to do a job that you actually don’t want done. Another good idea would be to make sure they have the tools and support to actually do it. 

For many members of the United States Border Patrol, the mixed signals, hidden expectations, and lack of support from the Biden administration have made their job intolerable. A new report shows that since President Biden took office, nearly one-fourth of the border patrol workforce has resigned, retired early, or separated by other means. The amount of agents retiring early is double what it was during the terms of Obama or Trump.

For many, morale is a big factor. 

“Under Biden, things are the worst they have ever been by far,” said one agent who is based in Arizona in a previous interview. “Agents are calling in all the time. You always hear, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ or, ‘What’s the point?’ in reference to doing our job. Agents are afraid of ending up on the news for doing their job or getting in trouble for doing their job. There is no morale.”

Policies that nullify the very purpose of the border patrolman’s work are one of the core reasons for the low morale. 

Matthew Hudak, recently retired second-in-command of Border Patrol, said work for many agents had become comparable to Groundhog Day, arresting illegal immigrants then releasing them into the United States rather than detaining or removing them. Hudak said it was humiliating for the federal law enforcement agents who had taken an oath to protect the country.

As El Cajon, CA Mayor Bill Wells, whose city is bearing the brunt of the Biden Border Crisis failures, said last week:

Border Patrol agents' morale is shattered. They signed up to protect our country, but now they're reduced to babysitting illegal immigrants. This isn’t what they signed up for. pic.twitter.com/7Bcy8o1Y8b

— Bill Wells (@MayorBillWells) May 15, 2024

A recent report also showed alarming numbers of suicides among border patrolmen, double that in all U.S. law enforcement agencies overall. 

READ MORE: Surging Suicide Rates Among Border Patrol Agents Should Warn Us

The only thing that could make this border crisis worse is a law enforcement crisis with no law enforcement. There must be a decisive resolve. Our servicemen cannot continue to be pawns in the middle of political turbulence. Our borders should resemble the great nation that we are– compassionate, but strong and orderly.  At least, that’s the nation we should be. 

“Our agency is half Hispanic, so we’re not a bunch of raging racists,” said the senior Border Patrol official who spoke anonymously. “We just want to enforce the law. What really motivates them is being able to stop bad people and narcotics from coming in.”

These are the people that we want serving our borders. We should give them everything they need to succeed. We need a president who can rally morale and fix this issue with common sense, something that could have been done a long time ago. If not, one day it might be too late and we will miss what we have lost.