1st woman to lead Border Patrol is stepping down

Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost, the first woman to lead the agency, is leaving her post.

The U.S. Border Patrol made the announcement on Tuesday. Provost, 50, spent 25 years with the agency, and a Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News she is stepping down because she is eligible to retire. Once Provost is gone, there will be at least 14 top Homeland Security positions that are either vacant or have an acting head, NBC News reports.

Provost first became acting chief in April 2017, and was made permanent in August 2018. In 2019, racist messages posted on a secret Facebook page for Border Patrol agents were made public, and it came out that Provost was a member of the group. She called the messages "completely inappropriate," and told Congress she started following the page in 2017, but "didn't think anything of it at the time" because she didn't often use Facebook.

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