Ex-NFL star Charles Tillman cites Trump's immigration crackdown as reason why he quit FBI

Charles Tillman, a former star defensive back for the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers, joined the FBI after his 13-year career in the NFL was finished.

Tillman revealed in an interview with former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Ryan Clark that he left the agency after several years because he refused to support President Donald Trump's policies such as the crackdown on illegal immigration.

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"Let me start by saying this – FBI was great to me," he said on "The Pivot Podcast." "I did awesome. I worked with an amazing group of individuals. I think some of the things that they’re doing now, I personally didn’t agree with ... immigration. I didn’t agree with how the administration came in and tried to make individuals do things against their — it didn’t sit right. An example being immigration, right?

"Everybody was told, ‘You’re going to go after the most dangerous criminals,’ but what you see on TV and what actually was happening was, people weren’t going after that. Personally, that didn’t sit right with me, that didn’t sit right with my conscience. You have the ability to refuse an order."

Tillman, a two-time Pro Bowler in the NFL, said he wanted to be "on the right side of history."

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"Do I think there are individuals in the organization, do they like doing some of the stuff that they're doing? Absolutely not. I think they hate it. I was in a different position because of my previous career," he continued.

"I made enough money to where I could just walk away and say 'You know what guys? I'm OK. I think I'm good. My first eight years, I've been solid, we were doing some good things. Some of the stuff you guys are doing now, I don't necessarily agree with.' And that's not in Chicago, that comes from Washington."

Two million illegal immigrants "have been removed or have self-deported" from the United States since Jan. 20, putting the Trump administration on pace to break records, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced. 

In less than 250 days, an estimated 1.6 million illegal immigrants have voluntarily self-deported, while 400,000 were removed by federal law enforcement, the DHS said this week, describing the situation as a "new milestone."

Tillman graduated from the FBI Academy in 2019, and joined the agency during Trump’s first administration.

He received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette before he was selected by the Bears in the 2003 NFL Draft. His father, Donald Tillman Jr., was a sergeant in the U.S. Army, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this report.

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