Why the Border Patrol went MAGA

Brandon Judd stepped down as president of the National Border Patrol Council after a decade in power.

He spearheaded the Border Patrol’s transformation from a largely nonpolitical backwater agency into one of the most influential, and divisive, law enforcement groups in the country.

The union's full-throated support for Trump ’s immigration policies has inextricably tied the agency's roughly 19,000 agents to MAGA politics, while Judd became a right-wing media darling.

Border Patrol chief backed President Trump 's border wall push.

The union had opposed the wall in 2012 , saying it was "wasting taxpayer money" Border Patrol union endorsed the bill that tightened asylum and beefed up border enforcement.

Former agents say union leaders were obsessed with changing the rules so agents could show tattoos and have beards.

Border Patrol union endorsed a bill to reduce illegal border crossings.

The bill failed.

Now, eight years after the union first endorsed Trump , many agents question the political turn the agency has taken.

The union hasn’t yet endorsed Trump again, perhaps an indication of discontent over its embrace of right-wing politics.