Benjamine Carry Huffman is an American law enforcement official who served as Director of

Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers The Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC; pronounced ) is a law enforcement training school under the United States Department of Homeland Security, serving 105 federal law enforcement agencies within the United States federal governm ...

, acting

United States secretary of homeland security The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the ...

from January 20 to 25, 2025 and acting

Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security The deputy secretary of homeland security is the chief operating officer of the United States Department of Homeland Security, with responsibility for managing day-to-day operations. The department has over 208,000 employees and an annual budge ...

from January 28 to February 4, 2025.

Early life

Huffman's family comes from

Stanton, Texas Stanton is a city in and the county seat of Martin County, Texas, Martin County, Texas, United States. Stanton was founded as Marienfeld by German immigrants that were some of the first settlers in this region of Texas. The population was 2,657 a ...

, and he grew up in

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the desert climate, arid and semiarid climate, semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Texas, Wichita Falls, Abilene, Texa ...

. He attended

Permian High School Permian High School is a public high school located in Odessa, Texas and is one of two high schools in the Ector County Independent School District. It was the subject of the book '' Friday Night Lights'', which in turn inspired a movie and TV ...

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

, where he graduated in 1979. He later attended

South Plains College South Plains College (SPC) is a public community college in Levelland, Texas. It also has five locations in Plainview, at the Reese Technology Center (formerly Reese Air Force Base), in western Lubbock, the Lubbock Downtown Center and th ...

, where he received an

associate's degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree. ...

in criminal justice, and

Sul Ross State University Sul Ross State University (SRSU) is a public university in Alpine, Texas, United States. The main campus is the primary institution of higher education serving the nineteen-county Big Bend, Texas, Big Bend region of far West Texas. Branch campuse ...

, where he earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in general studies and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in homeland security. He worked in Stanton until 1985.

Career

Huffman entered on duty with the

United States Border Patrol The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and is responsible for secu ...

on February 3, 1985, as a member of

Border Patrol Academy The CBP Border Patrol Academy is a training academy for future agents of the United States Border Patrol. It is located in Artesia, New Mexico. Located at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center FLETC Artesia formerly site of the College of ...

Class 173. He became a member of

BORTAC The Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) is one of two police tactical units in the Special Operations Group, under the United States Border Patrol (USBP) that specialize in counterterrorism, high-risk tactical law enforcement situations, hostage ...

in 1987 and served in various missions around the world, including

Operation Snowcap Operation Snowcap (1987–1995), launched in the spring of 1987, was a counter-narcotics operation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), BORTAC (U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit) and military/police forces in nine Latin Americ ...

in Bolivia and operations in South Africa. He later served as Acting Director of the Special Operations Group, where he led the

U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilita ...

(CBP) global response team, and then as Chief of the Strategic Planning and Analysis Directorate at Border Patrol Headquarters. In 2014, Huffman became a member of the

Senior Executive Service The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a position classification in the United States federal civil service equivalent to general officer or flag officer rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. It was created in 1979 when the Civil Service Reform Act of ...

and became Deputy Chief of the CBP

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

Sector of the U.S. border. He became Executive Assistant Commissioner of Enterprise Services in 2019, leading 4,500 employees. He served as Acting

Chief Operating Officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

of CBP and in 2021, he became Acting Deputy Commissioner. He became Director of the

(FLETC) on September 24, 2023, the body which provides training to those who work in various law enforcement agencies. On January 20, 2025, Huffman was appointed by President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

to be Acting

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the U ...

, as his nominee for the position,

Kristi Noem Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem ( ; née Arnold; born November 30, 1971) is an American politician serving as the 8th United States secretary of homeland security since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she served from 2019 to 2025 as the 33rd ...

, had not yet been approved by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. As Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, he ordered the end of

teleworking Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of working at or from one's home or another space rather than from an office or workplace. The pract ...

and issued a memo authorizing the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

to use federal law enforcement employees to carry out Trump's mass deportation of illegal immigrants.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Huffman, Benjamine Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Stanton, Texas Permian High School alumni South Plains College alumni Sul Ross State University alumni United States Border Patrol agents Biden administration personnel Second Trump administration cabinet members United States secretaries of homeland security