El Paso border patrol chief transferred amid controversy over migrant treatment

Officials on Thursday confirmed to ABC-7 that Aaron Hull, the chief of the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, is being reassigned as of next week.

NBC News reported the transfer was due to the growing controversy over the treatment of migrants in local detention facilities. The network cited an internal memo it had obtained.

A Customs and Border Protection official told ABC-7 that Hull was among “multiple members of the Border Patrol’s senior leadership team” who would be rotating to new assignments.

Hull will be transferred to Detroit, Michigan as of July 29, the official said, adding that he’ll be replaced in El Paso by Gloria Chavez, who is currently the chief of the El Centro Sector in California.

Hull’s removal from the El Paso sector comes amid an uproar over the treatment of children at the Clint border station, with federal court monitors decrying the squalid conditions there. In addition, there were allegations raised by some members of the Congressional Hispanic Cacus that migrant women were told to drink from toilets due to broken sinks in the Hondo Pass facility.

Hull, known as an immigration hardliner, had denied any problems at those facilities.