A retired Border Patrol chief confirmed on Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris never spoke to him, even after she was tasked to lead a major facet of the immigration crisis.
Retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who led the agency during the last year of the Trump administration and roughly the first seven months of the Biden administration, said policy brief meetings with the White House dwindled down to zero the moment the current administration came into power. The lack of communication continued even after Harris was appointed by the White House to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration Central America.
“Absolutely not,” Scott said to the Daily Caller News Foundation when asked if Harris ever personally spoke with him during his time leading the Border Patrol. “As soon as the [Biden-Harris] administration came in, we were basically told in no uncertain terms that if they wanted our opinions, they would ask, but they never asked.”
“At no time did Biden or Harris ever ask to meet with or get briefed by U.S. Border Patrol,” Scott continued. “No meetings at all.”
Scott also confirmed that this apparent no-contact policy did not change when the White House officially tapped Harris in March 2021 to lead the charge in addressing the “root causes” of illegal migration from Central America, which make up a significant bulk of illegal crossings at the border. While Harris’ campaign and her allies have recently rejected the “border czar” title given to by the media and others, the retired Border Patrol leader argued she was still given a clear mandate to solve a major component of the immigration crisis — a task he says she failed at.
“It was very clear to us and everyone else that she was appointed to actually take the lead and spearhead an initiative on border security,” Scott said. “One of the facets was on the root causes.”
“So if you only focus on the root causes, she went down to Central America, and the countries that she talked about on her one and only trip, the illegal immigration from those countries like doubled or tripled,” the retired chief explained. “She still failed miserably and there was no follow up.”
Following months of pressure, Harris visited the border for first time around El Paso, Texas, in June 2021. The announcement of her upcoming visit coincided with the Biden administration’s decision to boot Scott from his position atop Border Patrol.
The retired chief’s comments to the DCNF largely reflect what other Border Patrol leaders have said about their contact with Harris — or lack thereof.
Former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who immediately took over after Scott and lead the agency until June of last year, revealed to CBS News that he “never had one conversation” with Biden or Harris, and called the complete lack of communication “a problem.” The vice president of the Border Patrol union, Jon Anfinsen, revealed last month that Harris also never spoke to him or anyone else in his organization, despite her immigration leadership role.
The complete lack of communication or interest in border security policy briefings was a far cry from the Trump-era, Scott said.
“We had weekly White House meetings in the Trump administration,” he said. “It wasn’t always with the president or vice president, it was staff, but both Vice President Pence and President Trump were very keenly aware of what was going on at the border and we had a very high level of confidence they were being briefed.”
“At no time did the Biden-Harris administration ever want any of that information,” Scott explained.
The retired Border Patrol chief also said there was a 180 degree change in how he and others in his agency were allowed to interact with the media after the administration change.
Under Trump, Scott said he was given total freedom to speak his mind when engaging with reporters about the border situation. But the “minute” President Joe Biden and Harris entered office, a gag order was essentially placed on personnel and they were no longer able to freely speak with the press.
The Biden-Harris administration’s concerted effort to immediately undo many Trump-era border policies also coincided with an unprecedented increase in illegal immigration across the southern border.
There were roughly 400,000 unlawful crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2020, Trump’s last full fiscal year in office, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. That number skyrocketed to roughly 1,659,000 in fiscal year 2021 and rose to more than 2,206,000 in fiscal year 2022, with nearly identical illegal border crossings the following fiscal year.
The surge in illegal border crossings spawned financial crises in U.S. cities far away from the U.S.-Mexico border, with New York City, Boston, Denver, Chicago and other major metropolitan areas spending millions to house and feed asylum seekers who couldn’t support themselves.
The border crisis, which has calmed down in recent time after the Mexican government began to heavily crack down on U.S.-bound illegal migration through its country, led to a rightward shift in American voter sentiment on border security policy, and has become a weak point for Harris as she tries to defeat Trump at the ballot box in November.
The Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment from the DCNF.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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