From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

By Jason Hopkins

“There was a gag order put on us literally within minutes of the Biden administration taking office”

Retired Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott blew the whistle to the Daily Caller News Foundation 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.

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, told the DCNF he was given similar orders.

“There was a gag order put on us literally within minutes of the Biden administration taking office,” Scott told the DCNF.

“The chief of staff for Customs and Border Protection, when she arrived, one of her first orders was to forbid us from talking to the public, or doing press releases, or doing media without the White House clearing our statements,” Scott continued. “Not only were they not cleared, when they finally did give us talking points, they weren’t even accurate. They weren’t truthful.”

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 DCNF 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 changes in the administration. The longtime officer said higher-ups clamping down on communication to the public was nothing new, but the sheer level of control handed down by the Biden-Harris administration was nothing he had 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 to the DCNF 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.

“Prior to this administration, the San Diego sector averaged 10–15 SIAs per year,” Heitke told the House Homeland Committee. “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 SIAs or mention any of the arrests,” he continued. “The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border.”

Heitke also went into detail about the alleged steps the Biden-Harris administration would take to hide masses of migrants from reporters, accusing the White House of portraying “fiction” to the public.

“Each time we asked for help in dealing with a new issue, it fell on deaf ears,” Heitke said. “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.”

This is not the first time agents have accused the Biden-Harris administration of intentionally trying to cover up the extent of the border crisis from the media. Ahead of Harris’ first trip to the border in El Paso, Texas, in 2021, administration officials gave explicit instructions to clear the area of migrants in order to put on a “show” for the vice president, according to Border Patrol sources who spoke to the New York Post.

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.

Scott commended his former colleague for speaking out, noting that doing so puts his ability to make an income at risk. 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, according to the retired Border Patrol chief.

“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.

The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

By Katelynn Richardson

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Alabama Friday over its effort to remove non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen initiated an effort in August to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls after identifying 3,251 registered voters that had been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The lawsuit alleges Alabama’s removal of voters from its state registration list within 90 days of the election violates federal law, according to the DOJ’s press release.

“The right to vote is one of the most sacred rights in our democracy,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement Friday. “As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law.”

Clarke said officials around the country should “take heed of the National Voter Registration Act’s clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election.”

“I was elected Secretary of State by the people of Alabama, and it is my Constitutional duty to ensure that only American citizens vote in our elections,” Allen said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Allen said his office “does not comment on pending litigation where the Secretary of State is a named defendant.”

The federal government repeatedly denied the state’s requests for a list of noncitizens residing in Alabama, according to Allen’s August announcement.

“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said in August. “I have even gone so far as to testify before a United States Senate Committee regarding the importance of this issue.”

While Allen noted some individuals may have become citizens eligible to vote since they were issued noncitizen identification numbers, the state’s effort allows them to update their information and vote once it is verified, according to his announcement.

The DOJ’s review “found that both native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens have received letters stating that their voter record has been made inactive and that they have been placed on a path for removal from Alabama’s statewide voter registration list,” according to the press release. Citizens who received letters were instructed to submit an attached voter registration form.

Featured Image: Official White House/Adam Schultz