Mark A. Morgan

Mark A. Morgan (born 1965 or 1966) is an American law enforcement official who served as the Chief Operating Officer and Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection from July 5, 2019, to January 20, 2021.

Morgan had a long career in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, culminating in appointments as head of the Inspection Division and Training Division. He then served as chief of the United States Border Patrol under President Barack Obama as the first person to be appointed to that post from outside the Border Patrol; he resigned a few days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Morgan returned to government when he was announced as Trump's pick to be acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where he served from May 28, 2019, until he moved to Customs and Border Protection.

Early life and education Morgan was born in 1965 or 1966. Morgan received a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Central Missouri State University. and served active duty and in the United States Marine Corps Reserve for a total of 11 years including service at the Gulf War.

In 2014, he was appointed Assistant Director at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, with responsibility for overseeing policy development and delivery of all law enforcement skills and academic programs for the FBI workforce. Morgan was the first Chief of the Border Patrol to come from outside the agency, and was intended to be a reformer and increase accountability. The appointment was opposed by the Border Patrol's union, the National Border Patrol Council. His decision to wear the Border Patrol uniform was met with some opposition, as he had never been a Border Patrol officer.

On December 1, 2016, Morgan stated in a Senate hearing that he supported a comprehensive immigration overhaul, which was met with strenuous criticism from the National Border Patrol Council. Morgan subsequently clarified that he did not support "blanket amnesty."

On January 26, 2017, just days after President Donald Trump took office, he was forced to resign. He had reportedly desired to stay in his post during the Trump administration, internally criticizing the immigration enforcement policies of the Obama administration after the election.

Gap in government service In January 2019, Morgan said that he could determine if an unaccompanied minor would become a member of MS-13, a transnational crime gang known for gruesome violence, just by looking at their eyes.

Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement At the end of April 2019, it was reported that Trump was considering Morgan to take over as head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency's former acting director, Ronald Vitiello, resigned earlier in April after Trump pulled his nomination for the director's job, telling reporters that he wanted to go with someone "tougher" instead.

On May 5, Trump announced on Twitter that he had chosen Morgan to become the next acting director of ICE. The Washington Post reported that the announcement "caught White House aides and Homeland Security officials by surprise. They had not been informed Morgan was Trump’s choice, and at ICE, senior leaders learned of the decision from the president’s tweet, according to two senior administration officials." Matthew Albence, who had been acting director of ICE since April 2019 and was previously acting deputy director of the agency, continued in that role until Morgan was formally named acting director on May 28, 2019.

He was formally appointed to a newly created position as Principal Deputy Director that outranked the preexisting Deputy Director position. This was criticized as avoiding Senate scrutiny for this position through the normal confirmation process.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Morgan speaks at a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in September 2019 On June 27, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Morgan would become the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, replacing John Sanders, who had announced his resignation. On July 5, 2019, Morgan became acting commissioner. His formal appointment was as Chief Operating Officer of the agency. Since his appointment was never confirmed by the Senate and his tenure as acting commissioner exceeded 210 days, he can no longer legally lead the agency. To circumvent the law, his new title is "Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

In July 2020, Morgan sent CBP agents dressed in camouflage and tactical gear to Portland, Oregon, where federal agents repeatedly used tear gas and projectile munitions on protestors and shot one peaceful protestor in the face, fracturing his face. Agents also used unmarked vehicles to detain protestors, without identifying themselves as law enforcement. Legal observers called this "abduction" and "kidnapping". Oregon Governor Kate Brown described the actions as "abuse of power," and accused DHS of "provoking confrontation for political purposes." The New York Times reported that an internal DHS memo prepared by the top official at DHS prior to the deployment stated that the federal agents in question had not been specifically trained in riot control or mass demonstrations.

Tom Ridge, the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, sharply criticized the deployment, saying "The department was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president's personal militia." Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania, added that he would not have consented, as a governor, to what took place. Former Trump administration DHS spokesman Col. David Lapan disputed that the officers were easy to identify. When asked to provide evidence for the assertion, Morgan did not. He was mentioned as a possible candidate to the post of United States Secretary of Homeland Security in the second cabinet of Donald Trump.