Troy Miller, the top official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection during most of President Joe Biden’s term, is preparing to retire at the end of December, according to an email sent to agency staff Tuesday. He is a 31-year veteran of the agency.
Miller ran the country’s largest federal law enforcement agency during a period of record illegal crossings along the U.S.- Mexico and widespread disaffection among Border Patrol agents tasked with managing the influx.
CBP has not named an interim replacement for Miller, who was never formally nominated for the commissioner role but instead held the top job with the title “Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner.”
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he plans to nominate former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott for the commissioner role, which requires Senate confirmation. Scott has been a regular Fox News guest and outspoken Biden critic after retiring in 2021.
Miller, a career official who studiously avoided any appearance of partisanship, was known for his reserved manner and focus on law enforcement functions over border politics. He spent most of his career at CBP’s Office of Field Operations, the branch of the agency whose blue-uniformed officers are stationed at U.S. airports, border crossings and customs inspection facilities.
During his tenure, Miller gave relatively few media interviews and allowed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be the primary spokesperson for the Biden administration’s border policies. Illegal crossings from Mexico averaged 2 million per year between 2021 and 2023, the highest levels ever recorded, though a broad crackdown by Mexican authorities and the Biden administration has slashed the rate by about 75 percent over the past year.
Miller has overseen CBP’s efforts to interdict more illegal fentanyl and contraband along the Mexico border through a major expansion of powerful, next-generation scanning equipment for trucks and vehicles arriving at official crossings, known as ports of entry.
His career at CBP was defined by the reorganization of U.S. border security operations in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He helped established and lead the National Targeting Center in Sterling, Virginia, which functions as the centralized hub for CBP’s efforts to assess and screen passengers and cargo heading into the United States from abroad. He later ran CBP’s sprawling New York field office.
In his email to the CBP’s 65,000 employees, Miller noted his humble beginnings at an obscure border outpost in Noonan, North Dakota. “My arrival doubled the workforce: making a one-man port a two-man port,” he wrote. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined where this journey would take me.”
Miller was the acting commissioner of CBP when Biden took office, then remained at the agency in the deputy role after Biden’s pick to lead CBP, Chris Magnus, was confirmed by the Senate in December 2021.
Magnus, the former Tucson police chief, was forced out less than a year later after clashing with career CBP officials and Mayorkas. Miller was then reinstalled in the top role to stabilize the agency.
(c) Washington Post