Retired border chief ordered not to report border crossers with ties to terrorism

By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)

Aaron Heitke, the retired chief of the San Diego Border Patrol, said he was directed by the Biden administration not to disclose arrests of illegal border crossers identified as “aliens of interest” with ties to terrorism.

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Heitke testified before a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday about how Biden-Harris “open border policies have undermined our safety and security.”

“We have seen an exponential increase in significant aliens of interest … with significant ties to terrorism,” illegally entering U.S. Customs and Border Protection San Diego, he said.

Before the Biden-Harris administration, the industry was averaging 10 to 15 SIAs a year. “Once word got out that the border was much easier to cross, San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, over 100 SIAs in 2023, and even more this year,” he said.

“These are just the ones we caught,” meaning the number is likely higher due to the number of escaped criminals, those who cross the border illegally and are not caught.

“At the time, I was told that I could not release any information about this increase in SIAs or report the arrests,” Heitke testified. “The government was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border.”

His testimony came after the largest number of individuals on the U.S. federal terrorist watch list were arrested under the Biden-Harris administration at 1,856 since fiscal year 2021 through August, The Center Square reported.

According to him, none of this would have happened if the current federal laws passed by Congress had been enforced.

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“The only real consequence we have to discourage people from coming to the United States illegally is to send them back to their country of origin,” he said, which is required under current law.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, Border Patrol agents were instructed to do the opposite, he said. Over three and a half years, I saw a steady decline in the countries we could send people back to.

“For the first time in my 25 years and under five different administrations, whether by negligence or by design, I have seen a large-scale failure in our ability to return people to their countries of origin. The failure to return people home meant that most people who were arrested for illegal entry either had to be detained or released.”

Since January 2021, “on day one,” the Biden-Harris administration has “made it a point to reduce the amount of available detention space across the country,” noting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding for detention space has been steadily cut and private detention has been phased out.

The “open border policy” and “the fact that so many illegal aliens were released into the United States spread rapidly throughout the world,” he said, resulting in an unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants into the country.

“The impact on me and my agents was significant. Sectors were ordered to take in and process all illegal aliens they encountered at the border. Border Patrol saw groups of hundreds and thousands entering the United States and turning themselves in.”

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The result was “80% to 90%, sometimes 100% of the agents on duty (were pulled) from” the southwest border. There were miles of unmanned border in Texas, Arizona and California, he said, where “there were no agents for weeks and months at a time.”

Foreigners “who didn’t want to get caught could just walk in,” he said, referring to runaways, who have totaled at least more than 2 million since fiscal year 2021, The Center Square first reported.

“We have no idea who and what has come into our country during this time. In 2022 and 2023, I sent agents to Texas and Arizona to count the escapes. Those sectors couldn’t even put enough agents in the field to see what they missed.”

U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, Republican of New York, then asked him: “What information do we have on the millions of known escape travelers who have entered this country?”

“None,” Heitke replied.

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“Zero information on millions of people – some of whom are on the terror watch list – we have zero information?” D’Esposito asked.

“Correct.”

Heitke was interviewed by the committee last year and described the level of national security threats that existed after being forced to close checkpoints after an influx of illegal border crossers moved into California. Agents then had to pull manpower from the field to process and release illegal border crossers into the country, The Center Square reported. With their agents pulled from the field, Heitke and others said Americans were unsafe and that transnational criminal organizations exploit the open border for human trafficking and an unprecedented amount of fentanyl.

“Every time we asked for help solving a new problem, we got no response,” he said.

Reprinted with permission from The Center Square.

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