President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE’s nominee for head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) previously blasted his ouster as head of Border Patrol in 2017 as “heartless and void of any decency,” Axios reported on Sunday.

In January 2017 emails acquired by Axios, then-U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan told then-acting Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who is now acting Homeland Security secretary, that the administration’s push for him to leave immediately was “heartless and void of any decency and compassion."

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In other emails to McAleenan, Morgan wrote, "I am being removed in the name of politics — and politics at its worst. … I will not have them believe I willingly left under these circumstances" and "This is wrong on many levels. I have several questions but I need to process through a bit more."

No official reason was given for Morgan’s removal at the time, nor is it mentioned in the emails, but the National Border Patrol Council, the border patrol union, called him insufficiently experienced for the job. Morgan was the first Border Patrol chief to have been appointed to the position without ever having worked as a Border Patrol agent.

A source told Axios that the union’s president, Brandon Judd, had told President Trump to remove Morgan in January 2017. Since Trump’s nomination of Morgan for head of ICE, Judd has been more complimentary, telling Politico that Morgan's experience with the FBI made him a good choice.

Morgan himself has spent the two years since his firing praising Trump’s Border Patrol policies on TV and in congressional testimony and endorsing McAleenan as DHS head, telling Fox after Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Kirstjen Michele NielsenMore than million in DHS contracts awarded to firm of acting secretary's wife: report DHS IG won't investigate after watchdog said Wolf, Cuccinelli appointments violated law Appeals court sides with Trump over drawdown of immigrant protections MORE’s resignation that McAleenan was “very intelligent.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.