Vice President Kamala Harris is facing intense criticism over policies she endorsed or implemented while serving as Joe Biden’s second-in-command, particularly concerning her role as the de facto “border czar.”
The surge in illegal immigration and rising crime rates in American cities have intensified scrutiny of her efforts, and on Monday, a retired Border Patrol chief revealed that Harris never engaged with him, even after being assigned to tackle a significant aspect of the immigration crisis.
Retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who headed the agency during the final year of the Trump administration and the first seven months of the Biden administration, reported that policy briefings with the White House ceased entirely when the current administration took office.
Her lack of communication persisted despite Harris’s appointment by the White House to tackle the “root causes” of illegal immigration from Central America, the Daily Caller reports.
“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 told the outlet. “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.”
Scott added: “We had weekly White House meetings in the Trump administration. 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.”
The retired chief’s comments to the DCNF are in line with the sentiments of other Border Patrol leaders regarding their lack of communication with Harris.
Former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who succeeded Scott and led the agency until June of last year, disclosed to CBS News that he “never had one conversation” with either Biden or Harris, calling the absence of communication “a problem.”
