Former NFL star quits 7-year FBI job, says enforcing immigration laws ‘didn’t sit right’

A former professional football player’s explanation of why he quit the FBI left many wondering why he joined the bureau in the first place.

“… not even ashamed to be telling the world that enforcing the law ‘doesn’t sit right’ with him …”

Throughout the Biden administration, it was often reported how then-Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department and then-Director Christopher Wray’s FBI had focused on conservative parents at school board meetings and Christians like the Catholics in favor of the Tridentine Mass.

However, it wasn’t until President Donald Trump returned to office that former Chicago Bears cornerback Charles “Peanut” Tillman found himself refusing orders to be “on the right side of history” when it came to enforcing the law against illegal aliens.

Such was his admission in a Tuesday appearance on “The Pivot Podcast,” where he explained why he quit the FBI after seven years as “… some of the things that they’re doing I personally didn’t agree with, [such as] immigration.”

“I want to be on the right side of history when it’s all said & done”- @peanuttillman on resigning from the FBI.

Charles Tillman worked with the FBI for 8 years. He did amazing work there with great people, but some things he just couldn’t do. The public message from Washington… pic.twitter.com/HCgvZ4t9Sj

— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) September 24, 2025

“I didn’t agree with how the administration came in and tried to make individuals do things against their — it just didn’t sit right,” Tillman continued. “An example being immigration. Everybody was told, ‘You’re gonna go after the most dangerous criminals.’ But what you see on TV and what actually was happening is like people weren’t going after that. Personally, that didn’t sit right with me. That didn’t sit right with my conscience.”

“Just because they say, ‘Go arrest this person,’ okay yeah, you’re my superior — I don’t have to go do that. You can’t make me go do that. You know, I’m not in the military. You gave me an order, but I can totally refuse that order,” he went on. “At the end of the day, I want to be on the right side of history when it’s all said and done.”

The former professional athlete who’d joined the FBI in 2018 during Trump’s first administration had also claimed that he had peers who felt the same way but did not have the liberty to walk away from the job. “I was in a different position because of my previous career. I made enough money to where I could just walk away and say, ‘You know what, guys? I’m okay, I think I’m good.’”

Earlier this year, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) had submitted a letter to the FBI seeking responses to requests for information that Wray had “consistently failed” to offer, particularly concerning a memo that had been made public in 2023 before it was retracted that likened some Catholic lifestyles, which included “[c]onservative family values/roles,” to “Islamist ideology.”

“It is unknown if priests or other parishioners within certain [Radical Traditionalist Catholic] communities are recruiting or radicalizing members or individuals,” read the draft memo in part.

Meanwhile, reactions on social media readily called out Tillman over the FBI’s actions under the previous administration against groups that didn’t align with a leftist worldview.

He was cool with things when the previous administration went after citizens that voiced concerns at school board meetings, but draws the line when it’s going after illegal aliens?

— A Damp Ship Man (@howdyclemson) September 27, 2025

Things were so good back when you were midnight raiding grandmothers for parading during J6 huh @peanuttillman

— Springfield M1A (@M1aSpringfield) September 25, 2025

If the law “didn’t sit well” , why did he choose to be in LAW ENFORCEMENT ?

— Clara Winslow (@clara_winslow) September 27, 2025

We shouldn’t have people working in law enforcement that aren’t interested in enforcing our laws. He made the right decision.

— Jeff Skelly (@_jeffskelly) September 27, 2025

These MFS have zero self awareness nowadays. He not even ashamed to be telling the world that enforcing the law “doesn’t sit right” with him? Well WTF you been doing there this whole time?

— Otter Dis World (@NachoSlave777) September 27, 2025

Glad you quit. The FBI doesn’t need political actors like you in there. Inviting 20 mil undocumented or going after people praying in front of a portion clinics, or labeling Catholics dangerous is ok?

— Jeri (@yayay87) September 26, 2025

So, I could not uphold my oath to the Constitution he what he is saying. pic.twitter.com/AzfbwVDdmN

— Tony L (@RealTonyL1775) September 27, 2025

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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