Border agent whistleblowers accuse Homeland Security of trying to drive them to SUICIDE for exposing major failure
A new memo reveals that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has retaliated against a group of agency whistleblowers who publicly alleged they were violating a law requiring the collection of DNA from illegal immigrants.
These whistleblowers – Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor and Mark Jones – told reporter Catherine Herridge: ‘The aim of the agency is to bankrupt you, to shut you down, to die, to kill yourself, or actually, preferably, all of these things.’
Herridge obtained an internal memo from the US Office of Special Counsel: “The agency retaliated against complainants for actual or perceived disclosures of misconduct.”
“The deliberate non-compliance is, to me, inexplicable,” one whistleblower told Herridge.
Whistleblowers Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor and Mark Jones told reporter Catherine Herridge: ‘The aim of the agency is to make you go bankrupt, make you quit, make you die, make yourself killed, or actually, preferably, all of the above’
The memo said the retaliation involved “a significant change in duties, responsibilities and working conditions” and that the agency did not offer the employees performance-related incentives.
“The actions were prompted by the agency’s displeasure with the complainants’ alleged and actual involvement in exposing the agency’s deliberate, decades-long failure to enforce a law intended to protect public safety.”
The whistleblowers said their weapons were taken away and they lost all career opportunities almost overnight after they came forward to say no DNA had been collected.
The whistleblowers first spoke out to the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. He first wrote to DHS in 2018 after receiving the legally protected whistleblower reports.
According to an internal Homeland Security directive obtained by Grassley, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is required to collect DNA samples from “individuals who are not citizens of the United States and who are detained for immigration violations.”
This policy is in accordance with the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005.
However, Grassley found that about 70 percent of border violations did not result in the legally required DNA collection, and that as many as 950,000 violent criminals went unidentified between 2010 and 2019.
According to the whistleblowers, that number has increased dramatically since then.
“Americans are dead and these deaths were preventable,” said Homeland Security whistleblower Fred Wynn.
The Border Patrol’s San Diego sector has become the busiest in the country in recent weeks
Chinese migrants are among the nationalities that have entered the US in unprecedented numbers over the past year
In April, the San Diego region passed Tucson, the nation’s busiest, to fall to second place with 31,219 border encounters. The El Paso sector, which includes the West Texas city and all of New Mexico, rose to third place with 30,393.
Wynn said he had no doubt that the lack of enforcement of the policy may have been “a contributing factor” in the August 2023 sexual assault and murder of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old Maryland mother.
The suspect was linked to a home invasion before her murder.
“If due care had been taken according to the law and DNA had been collected, we would have known who we were looking for.”
The whistleblowers said no one had been demoted or disciplined for failing to comply with the DNA Act. “The only ones who have been disciplined are here.”
“I’ve had my license as a police officer taken away, my pension taken away, and I can tell you that in a police environment, in a police environment, it is the ultimate insult and humiliation to take away someone’s firearm,” Taylor said.
“I was basically sitting at my desk with ice, every day, doing nothing but the most basic tasks, my future career opportunities, because I was working in such a limited atmosphere. All that future potential disappeared in one day,” Wynn said.
“Like Mr. Taylor. My firearm was taken away, my credentials were taken away, and that was the last straw, the final blow to a professional career, and what we did was come forward. In our 75 years or so of combined service, none of us have had even one written or verbal disciplinary action.”
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green said his committee had confirmed that DHS had failed to collect DNA data from migrants.
“Rather than empowering Border Patrol agents and other CBP officials, Biden, Harris, and DHS Secretary Mayorkas have made it harder for DHS law enforcement to do their jobs and have retaliated against those who object. Investigative efforts by my committee have also confirmed that CBP, under the Biden-Harris administration, is simply not in the business of collecting this vital DNA data, and Americans and vulnerable migrants are the ones who ultimately suffer the consequences,” he told DailyMail.com.
7