EDINBURG — The U.S. Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector welcomed a new chief patrol agent on Wednesday.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott selected Brian Hastings, a longtime Border Patrol administrator who most recently served as chief of the law enforcement operations directorate, to head the Rio Grande Valley Sector.

“Supporting the men and women of the RGV Sector, all of whom accomplished amazing things to secure this nation during a time of an unprecedented crisis, is my priority,” Hastings said in a statement released by the Rio Grande Valley Sector on Wednesday. “RGV agents have been at the epicenter of the crisis throughout and they performed those duties in an outstanding manner.”

Hastings joined the Border Patrol in 1995, when he was assigned to Cotulla. He served in sectors on both the northern and southern border, and in Washington D.C.

“I am committed to doing everything I can to strengthen the already incredible partnerships that my predecessors, current leaders, and agents have formed in the Rio Grande Valley,” Hastings said in the statement.