Ex-Border Patrol Chief: Biden-Harris Administration Forbid Agents from Discussing Increasing Terror Threats

President Joe Biden’s administration instructed Border Patrol agents not to disclose to the American public the increase in terrorist encounters at the border, former chief patrol agent for Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector, Aaron Heitke, said on Thursday.

Before Biden took office, Border Patrol agents in Heitke’s San Diego sector typically arrested ten to 15 special-interest aliens (SIA), or suspected terrorists, per year. That number spiked to more than 100 encounters per year after Biden took office and continued climbing throughout his term, Heitke testified during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing.

“Once word was out the border was far easier to cross, San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, well over that in 2023 and even more than that registered this year. These are only the ones we caught,” Heitke said.

“At the time, I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIAs, or mention any of the arrests,” he added. “The administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.”

Heitke, who retired last year, testified that the Biden-Harris administration also told him not to speak to the media.

“I had to release illegal aliens by the hundreds each day into communities who could not 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,” he said. “This was the administration’s way to try and quiet the border-wide crisis.”

Special-interest aliens are non-U.S. citizens who “based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its interests,” DHS says on its website. Leaked data from Customs and Border Patrol showed that border patrol encountered more than 70,000 SIAs between October 2021 and October 2023, and last year, Border Patrol said that it apprehended more than 160 people who were on the terror watchlist. Fox reported in October 2023 that border patrol has missed an estimated 1.5 million “gotaways.”

The former chief attributed the border crisis to Biden, who he said stopped deportations and allowed immigrants to be released into the U.S.

“For the first time in my 25 years in under five different administrations, whether through neglect or on purpose, I saw a large-scale lapse in our ability to return people to their country of origin,” Heitke said. “The inability to send people home meant that most people being arrested for illegal entry would either have to be detained or released.”