In the latest U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Biden border crisis, retired Chief of the United States Border Patrol and current TPPF Senior Distinguished Fellow for Border Security Rodney Scott explained his experience seeing over three decades of border security gains being dismantled and the path he prescribes for regaining the border security the American people deserve.
“I personally witnessed the unprecedented seismic shift in border security and immigration policy that was initiated by the Biden administration,” said Scott, who served as Border Patrol Chief from February 2020 until his retirement in August of 2021.
“I observed and experienced the rapid degradation of our border security from order to total chaos firsthand,” Scott told Committee members. “During my tenure as Chief, the Biden administration’s team at DHS was laser-focused on expediting the processing and flow of migrants into the U.S. They downplayed or completely refused to accept the significant vulnerability this creates for terrorists, narcotics smugglers, human traffickers, and even hostile nations to gain access to our homeland,” Scott testified.
“The sustained record-breaking mass illegal immigration we have been experiencing is a direct result of the catch and release polices implemented through the termination of the Migrant Protection Protocols, broad exemptions to Title 42 expulsions, reduction of detention space and the implementation of an arguably illegal parole program,” Scott explained.
“The ability of USBP to detect and interdict those who want to evade apprehension has been decimated,” Scott testified. “I am sickened by the avoidable and what appears to be intentional destruction of what was the most effective border security in our Nation’s history,” he added. “It is my professional assessment that this highly publicized policy shift created the current border crisis and effectively transferred control of our southwest border into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels,” testified Scott.
Questioned by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Scott said order can be restored by ending the current catch and release policy as well as re-establishing a Remain in Mexico policy, as was effective during the previous administration. In his testimony Scott noted that until the advent of the Biden administration, the fundamental principles of deterrence and appropriate consequences for violations of law undergirded the policies of all previous administrations.
The retired Border Patrol Chief pointed out that while border security and immigration policy are often spoken about synonymously “they are in fact two distinctly different, yet interrelated issues. Border security is simply knowing and controlling who and what enters our homeland. All immigration and customs laws and associated policies are founded on the premise of being able to establish and maintain border security, or simply the ability to control the initial entry. If you cannot control who enters our home, any discussion about who is allowed to stay is irrelevant.”