In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee on Sept. 18, Aaron Heitke, the former chief patrol agent of San Diego until 2023, claimed that the administration attempted to suppress media exposure regarding the escalating number of illegal migrants crossing into the United States.
"Each time we asked for help in dealing with a new issue, it fell on deaf ears. At times in San Diego, we had 2,000 or more aliens sitting in between the fences asking to turn themselves in," said Heitke. "I was told to move them out of the sight of the media."
Heitke shared multiple instances where the administration was attempting to hide the crisis. He criticized the decision made in 2021 to halt deportations and end the policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims were processed.
"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," said Heitke. "The inability to send people home meant that most people being arrested for illegal entry would either have to be detained or released."
"I had to release illegal aliens by the hundreds each day into communities that 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," said Heitke, adding that each flight cost the government $150,000. "This was the administration's way to try and quiet the border-wide crisis." (Related: Open borders policies are really just a child trafficking operation run by Democrats.)
Federal data, Heitke pointed out, indicates that over 5.3 million of the nine million migrants arrested at the border during the Biden-Harris administration have been allowed to remain in the United States. He argued that this leniency encouraged more illegal crossings in 2022 and 2023 and created a vicious cycle that overwhelmed the border patrol agents.
"Border Patrol saw groups of hundreds and thousands coming into the United States and turning themselves in. These numbers pulled 80, 90, sometimes 100 percent of the agents on duty away from the border," Heitke said. "Border Patrol zones across Texas, Arizona and California had no agent presence for weeks and months at a time. Those who did not want to be caught could simply walk in."
Migrants linked to terrorism and drug trafficking
Aside from accusing the Biden-Harris administration of covering up the increase in migrants, the former official also raised national security concerns and drug trafficking.
Heitke testified that his agents in San Diego encountered an alarming rise in "Special Interest Aliens" (SIAs) – migrants from countries linked to terrorism or security threats.
"These are aliens with significant ties to terrorism," he said. Before this administration, the San Diego sector averaged 10 to 15 arrests per year. Once word was out, the border was far easier to cross. San Diego went to over 100 arrests in 2022, well over that in 2023, and even more than that registered 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 size or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public. There was no threat at the border."
Drugs are another one of his concerns.
"The San Diego area sees between 80 and 90 percent of the methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures annually for our entire country.
"With little enforcement at the border, these drugs were coming through in mass. During my last year in San Diego, the price for a single pill of fentanyl, for example, went from $10 to $0.25. To make matters worse, during 2022 and 23, I had to shut down San Diego traffic checkpoints, which are critical for drug interdiction, because the resources had been diverted to the process and release mission," he said.
But despite all this, Heitke said he was repeatedly told not to release information about the rising number of SIAs or related arrests, with the administration allegedly pushing to "convince the public there was no threat at the border."
Watch the video below that talks about the mainstream media covering up Harris' failure as the "border czar."
This video is from Justin Barclay's channel on Brighteon.com.
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