Yesterday, I wrote about and talked about the damage done to our country by the Biden-Harris administration by opening the borders to illegal aliens on our daily radio program.
We reported that more than 647,000 illegals who are convicted or suspected of committing sexual assault are roaming free in the United States.
Today, in follow-up, the extent to which the Biden-Harris Administration demanded that border officials cover up the border crisis as it grew more and more invasive to our American way of life and our safety.
Retired Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott blew the whistle on how the Biden-Harris administration allegedly went to great lengths to hide the immigration crisis from the public, just days after a sector chief made similar claims.
Be informed, not misled.
Aaron Heitke, a former chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector, testified before a House committee on Sept. 18 and claimed that the White House ordered agents to hide information on arrests of special interest aliens (SIAs), move masses of illegal migrants out of sight of the press and give other instructions to disguise the true level of the border crisis. Scott, who led Border Patrol from roughly the last year of the Trump administration to the first seven months of the Biden administration, says he was given similar orders.
Daily Caller was the first to report on parts of this story.
Chief Heitke’s full testimony can be viewed here.
This is a summary:
Introduction to the report.
“Last week, Chief Heitke exposed the disastrous, real-world consequences of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ open-borders policies and the lengths to which they have gone to hide the truth about those policies from the American people. Not only was Chief Heitke ordered to keep quiet about the drastic increase in arrests of illegal aliens with potential ties to terrorism, but he was also ordered to move illegal aliens out of sight of the media to avoid inconvenient public attention."
“The corporate media has largely ignored these revelations. This is a disservice to the American people. Chief Heitke’s testimony shows that the Biden-Harris administration has already tried to hide the truth about what’s going on at the border. They should not be getting any additional help from the media.”
Background: In testimony before the Committee, Chief Heitke revealed the shocking actions and orders he observed while managing Border Patrol operations for the San Diego Sector.
Forced to Hide Information on Arrests of Special/Significant Interest Aliens:
“Prior to this administration, the San Diego sector averaged 10-15 [Significant Interest Aliens] per year. Once word was out that the border was far easier to cross, San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, way over 100 SIAs in 2023 and more than that this year. These are only the ones we caught. At the time, I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIA’s or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border.”
Ordered to Move Illegal Aliens Out of Sight of the Public:
“Through pressure from the administration, my headquarters became more interested in the fiction being portrayed in the media and not at all concerned with reality. Each time we asked for help in dealing with a new issue it fell on deaf ears. At times in San Diego, we had 2,000 or more aliens sitting in between the fences asking to turn themselves in. I was told to move them out of sight of the media.”
Observed $150,000 Flights of Detained Illegal Aliens from California to Texas:
“The large numbers also had and still have a negative impact on the San Diego community. I had to release illegal aliens by the hundreds each day into communities who couldn’t support them. To quiet the problem two flights a week were provided from San Diego to Texas. These flights simply brought aliens that would have been released in San Diego over to Texas. Each flight cost approximately $150,000. This was the administration’s way of trying to quiet the border-wide crisis.”
A review of news outlets such as the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and USA Today revealed no mention of Heitke’s testimony.
Retired Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott's tenure as Border Patrol leader overlapped with Vice President Kamala Harris’ assignment to address the root causes of illegal immigration from Central America. The retired chief confirmed to the Daily Caller that Harris never once spoke to him, even after her designation as “border czar.”
Having worked in Border Patrol since the early 1990s, Scott has experienced multiple administrative changes. The longtime officer said higher-ups clamping down on communication with the public was nothing new, but the sheer level of control handed down by the Biden-Harris administration was something he had never experienced before.
“No press conferences were approved, all border tours were shut down,” Scott said. “It was unprecedented. I’ve never seen a gag order that tight.”
Scott’s comments follow the testimony given by Heitke, where the former San Diego sector chief agent said he was prohibited from talking about the rising number of SIAs — migrants who potentially pose a national security risk to the U.S. — unlawfully crossing the border.
While an executive order issued by President Joe Biden in June led to a steady decline in illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months, his administration had overseen a major wave of illegal immigration into the country after issuing a slate of executive orders that largely dismantled the Trump administration’s border agenda.
Border Patrol agents have encountered more than seven million migrants illegally crossing into the U.S. since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, according to the latest data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The massive wave of illegal migration has strained the resources of major sanctuary cities such as New York City and Chicago, but also smaller towns in the country’s heartland such as Springfield, Ohio.
Takeaway
Scott commended his former colleague for speaking out, noting that doing so risks his ability to earn an income. According to the retired Border Patrol chief, many retired agents don’t speak out because companies and other private contractors that work with the federal government want to avoid the publicity that can come with working with or hiring whistleblowers.
“I think it’s very problematic that the administration is trying to hide so much relevant information from the public,” Scott said. “I’m very, very grateful that Chief Heitke stepped up and decided to share that information with the public because that really hurts his ability to get contract jobs in the future.”
“[Heitke is] not only taking a risk, he’s knowingly cutting his family’s income by standing up for what’s right,” he continued.
Liberty and freedom have a cost attached to them. They are not without sacrifice.
Heitke and Trump understand the cost, and so must all of us if we are to sustain them.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Sober. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. VOTE.