Kermit Liebel, who’s treasurer of the Fraternal Order of Retired Border Patrol Officers —not to be confused with the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers— … now lives in Montana. Mr. Liebel retired from the Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] in 1994, following seven years’ service in its Border Patrol division and 23 years in Investigations, including time spent in California, metropolitan Chicago, Montana, and Alaska. Of course, he’s free to speak now, and he keeps close track of what’s happening in his old shops. (The INS, along with the Coast Guard and several other federal agencies, became part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002.) Regarding the conditions in ICE and the Border Patrol, Mr. Liebel told me by phone (Monday, November 14, 2016) that “Morale is extremely low. The turnover rate is very high, despite the jobs being well-paid.” [With Trump Elected, Immigration Enforcers Breathe A Collective Sigh Of Relief, November 16, 2016]

Mostly heartened by Federale’s blog entry here today [ Sabotage Confirmed, Deep State Operatives In ICE Fighting Trump–The Good News Is ICE Says No Illegals “Exempt From Arrest Or Removal” ], I emailed the link to Kermit Liebel, a retired immigration-enforcement agent I know who lives near Helena, Montana. I’d previously introduced Mr. Liebel here at VDARE shortly after the election, as follows:After sending him the link to Federale’s blog post, I followed up by phone with Mr. Liebel. He enthusiastically told me that he’d attended the Fraternal Order’s annual meeting in May, held this year in San Diego. The retirees were given a tour of the border locally and briefed on the state of affairs by active Border Patrol personnel.

The agents’ morale, Mr. Liebel said, is now “very, very high. … They’re doing a lot of enforcement. It’s a 180-degree turn from the Obama administration to the Trump administration. And they’re no longer bringing them in the front door and releasing them out the back door [i.e. setting them loose into the U.S. interior].”

He added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]—separate from the Border Patrol—has arrested over 16,000 aliens with standing orders of removal [aka “deportation”] nationwide since the turn of the year. Most of these have been aliens with criminal convictions aside from any immigration violations. (Note that Lawful Permanent Residents who commit crimes are also subject to removal in some cases.) And there’s a task force that’s focused on arresting gang members such as those of MS-13.

Given that there were close to a million illegal aliens with final orders of removal as of May 2016 [ICE: 950,000 illegals with ‘removal orders’ free, raids get just a sliver, by Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, February 20, 2017], 16,000 getting snared over five to six months isn’t a big haul, relatively speaking. But if the administration remains committed to enforcement and this is well-publicized, it’s a good bet that “attrition through enforcement” will kick in, big-time—seeing the handwriting on the wall, significant numbers of deplorable deportables will begin leaving on their own, rather than constantly looking over their shoulders and worrying about getting nabbed. (To the amusement of the clueless, Mitt Romney called this “self-deportation.”)

Having enforcement officers back to being enthused about their work is important, too. For there’s a L O N G way to go, and the many branches of America’s depraved political class will continue actively monkey-wrenching the historic American nation’s fight for survival in the face of massively-unwanted immigration. (Example from the Oregon branch of our depraved political class: the malign doings of their legislature, nicely summarized by Oregonians For Immigration Reform.)