Top Border Official Resigns Abruptly After 2 Months

John Sanders is out as acting director of Customs and Border Patrol
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 25, 2019 12:51 PM CDT
Top Border Official Resigns Abruptly After 2 Months
In this May 15, 2019, photo, acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner John Sanders, left, joins Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, on Capitol Hill.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

More turmoil at the agency that polices the nation's border: The acting director of Customs and Border Protection has resigned after just two months on the job, reports NBC News. "I will leave it to you to determine whether I was successful," John Sanders wrote to CBP employees, without elaborating on why he was leaving, per the Wall Street Journal. The move comes amid a flurry of criticism about the living conditions of migrant children being held by the agency. In a conference call with reporters, an unnamed CBP official pushed back on the accounts of lawyers who visited the children and heard stories of inadequate food and showers. "I personally don’t believe these allegations," the official said, per the New York Times.

In fact, he said 100 children were being returned to a facility in Clint, Texas, shortly after being removed from there after the lawyers' complaints. About 300 children were moved out of the Clint facility originally. As for Sanders, he became acting director of CBP after President Trump fired Kirstjen Nielsen as chief of Homeland Security in April, then moved the then-head of the CBP, Kevin McAleenan, into Nielsen's old role. Sanders will exit his role July 5. (People have been trying to donate diapers and other items for the migrant children, but they're not being accepted.)

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