WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has successfully secured promotions for three Customs and Border Protection (CBP) whistleblowers, along with full compensation for the more than seven years of retaliation they’ve suffered.

Whistleblowers Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor and Mark Jones have been elevated to new supervisory roles at CBP, reversing their prior demotion and reduction in pay. The whistleblowers will receive back pay and retirement benefits to cover for nearly a decade of financial losses inflicted by the agency. The agency is also reauthorizing Jones and Taylors’ law enforcement credentials, badges and firearms, after they were revoked by the Biden administration in 2023 for blowing the whistle on CBP’s failure to comply with the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005. 

These actions fulfill Grassley’s explicit requests on behalf of the whistleblowers, and fully unwind years of CBP retaliation.

“Today is a victory for Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor, Mark Jones and the rule of law. At long last, these patriotic men will be made whole again,” Grassley said. “I’m very grateful to the leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, who worked with me to bring these whistleblowers back to their rightful roles. Once again, the Trump administration has shown its respect for people that blow the whistle on wrongdoing. I hope that continues, because when you’re at the top of the bureaucracy, you don’t always know what goes on below. That’s precisely why we need brave whistleblowers like these three.”

“These men had the courage and patriotism to speak up against the Biden Administration's deliberate efforts to destroy our national security. They paid an unjust price for doing so — betrayed by an administration that protected lawbreakers and punished law enforcement,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “Under President Trump's leadership, we are restoring what is right and true and getting these patriots back to doing the work they love.”

Background:

The DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005 requires federal law enforcement to collect DNA from every individual CBP arrests, charges, convicts or detains. Wynn, Taylor and Jones were sidelined for sounding the alarm on the agency’s consistent failure to collect all legally-required DNA samples. In 2023, data showed CBP was collecting DNA samples from fewer than 40 percent of the illegal immigrants entering under the Biden-Harris administration.  

Since 2018, Grassley has urged CBP to halt its retaliation of these three whistleblowers and follow the law. He highlighted their case at a congressional roundtable last year, where Wynn, Taylor and Jones addressed senators in a panel discussion on the national security implications of CBP’s refusal to collect DNA samples.

During last week’s hearing to consider President Trump’s nominee to be CBP Commissioner, Grassley again voiced his request for these whistleblowers to be “100% redirected from the punishment they had by the previous administration.” Days later, CBP agreed to promote Wynn, Taylor and Jones.

This is the second agreement Grassley has brokered this year on behalf of whistleblowers. In March, the IRS promoted whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, at Grassley’s urging.   

-30-