Six current and former Border Patrol agents are coming forward to accuse the agency's chief, Michael Banks, of repeatedly soliciting sex workers while overseas, reported the conservative Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
"Banks 'bragged' to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade," said the report. "Banks’ behavior was said to have been investigated by Customs and Border Protection officials twice, including last year, but the investigation ended abruptly while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office, leading to more questions."
One of the sources, who claims Banks tried to invite him along on one of these trips, told the Examiner, “I don’t know how he became the chief of the Border Patrol with his character. He’s going to third-world countries to take advantage of poor f------ women, which disgusts the hell out of me.”
Another source said, “He would tell people that’s why he was going on these trips — he would go there to engage in activities with prostitutes. So I think those stories are out everywhere, and you can’t put them away or not give it attention because he was the one telling people about these trips."
This comes after Noem herself was fired from her old role by the Trump administration, after she claimed in a congressional hearing that President Donald Trump had signed off on a highly controversial taxpayer-funded $200 million ad campaign that plastered her face all over the country — something Trump has denied was the case.
It also comes as another high-ranking figure in Border Patrol, Greg Bovino, was forced aside amid national outrage about his handling of the federal takeover of Minneapolis, which resulted in the deaths of two people and widespread demonstrations against the occupation.
