Rodney Scott, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), made his first appearance before a Senate panel Wednesday on his way to confirmation.
Democrats at the Senate Finance Committee hearing said they were concerned about several incidents in Scott’s past at Border Patrol, as well as how he would carry out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“If confirmed as commissioner, I will take a lead role in providing America with real border security, as the 9/11 report highlighted, securing our nation is a team sport,” Scott testified Wednesday morning. “I’ve been on this team for over three decades, and I’ve learned a lot. Our borders must be secured not just to protect a line on a map, but to defend the American people, our values, and our way of life.”
Trump nominated Scott to be CBP commissioner in early December 2024. At the time, Scott’s nomination drew broad support and excitement from Border Patrol agents nationwide.
Scott’s vote before the committee will take place at a later date.
Lawmakers examine Scott’s plans for CBP
CBP has 60,000 employees and is comprised of several smaller organizations, including the Border Patrol. CBP is responsible for inspecting people and goods entering the United States by air, land, and sea at 328 ports of entry nationwide. It also interdicts goods and people attempting to enter between the ports of entry.
Under the Biden administration, more than 10.7 million people were encountered by federal police attempting to enter the country unlawfully, more than any two-term administration, according to CBP statistics.
In recent months, monthly apprehensions of illegal immigrants have hit 60-year lows, with fewer than 8,000 people intercepted in March. The precipitous drop from the Biden era border crisis of 100,000 to 250,000 arrests per month comes in the wake of Trump’s mountain of executive actions on immigration since January.
Given the changing landscape at the border, Republicans pushed Scott to explain how he would run CBP to further reduce illegal immigration and drug smuggling from Mexico into the United States.
“We’ll continue to build out the border wall system. We’ll continue to build out the technology, but we’ll also make sure that we work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office so that there are consequences to violating laws in the United States,” Scott answered a question from Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY). “The biggest reason right now that we’re seeing that massive reduction is because people are held accountable for violating the law, and they’re quickly removed from the United States.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member on the committee, said Trump’s recent implementation of tariffs on foreign trade partners had incidentally wrapped up CBP’s Office of Field Operations, who inspect goods coming into the country — and that Scott had no experience in that area.
“He has no experience with customs facilitation or enforcement. Mr. Trump, Donald Trump, is creating the biggest disruptions to the customs system that I’ve seen in my time in public service,” said Wyden. “Leaving it in the hands of someone without experience with customs raises serious questions that matters to small business in Oregon.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she was worried following recent instances of immigrants disappearing after attempting to pass through port of entry.
“Lawyers and loved ones find CBP to be a black box that detains people and refuses to tell anyone where they are for hours, sometimes for days,” Warren said. “For example, two U.S. citizen children and their immigrant mother were detained by CBP for three days without being able to communicate with legal counsel or anyone in their family. They reported feeling, ‘Kidnapped.’”
Scott stopped short of promising to let people in custody speak with legal counsel or loved ones within “hours,” much to Warren’s dismay.
Scott faces criticism for past actions
Wyden pummeled Scott for several instances where he said the nominee had proven he “falls short” of the “strength” and “character” necessary to lead the agency.
Wyden pointed to a 2010 incident when Scott was a senior official in Border Patrol’s San Diego region.
James Wong, a former deputy assistant commissioner of CBP’s office of internal affairs, reached out to Wyden’s office last week and said he was concerned about Scott’s handling of the investigation into the death of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, who was killed while in CBP custody. Wong alleged that Scott impeded the investigation by local police. The local coroner’s office determined the immigrant’s death was a homicide based on how severely he was beaten by federal agents.
“This was not an investigation, it was a cover-up – one Mr Scott supervised,” Wong wrote in his letter to Wyden, which the Guardian first reported. “This abuse of power disqualifies him from leading one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the country.”
Wyden then brought up a comment that Scott made on what was then called Twitter in 2021. Jen Budd, a female former Border Patrol agent who has identified as a sexual assault victim while in the Border Patrol academy, had tweeted criticism of how Scott handled the Hernández Rojas investigation and questioned why he did not do more to investigate her allegations of assault.
Scott publicly responded to her, “I investigated all your allegations. Not a crumb of evidence could be found to support any of them. But I did find out a lot about you. Lean back, close your eyes and just enjoy the show.”
In the hearing, Scott testified to Wyden that he had publicly apologized to the former female agent.
“After about four years of being insulted left and right. I had a weak moment. I apologize for that, but I was not making any type of a threat,” said Scott on Wednesday.
Finally, Wyden pointed to a 2019 ProPublica story that revealed that agents in a private 9,500-member Facebook group had made vile comments about Democratic lawmakers and immigrants in their custody. The issue was raised in congressional hearings and became a regular topic in media interviews.
“There were about 9,000 people that were members of that group. There was a very small group of people that posted inappropriate offensive material. It was called out by other Border Patrol agents on that site, and it was investigated and they were held accountable,” said Scott.
Scott’s history in law enforcement
Scott is from Southern California and joined the Border Patrol in 1992 at the Imperial Beach Station out of San Diego. He worked his way up through the ranks with positions across the country before being named antiterrorism adviser to the CBP commissioner after the 9/11 terrorist attack, and was then promoted to deputy executive director of the CBP Office of Anti-Terrorism.
As Border Patrol chief under Trump and then Biden for 18 months, Scott oversaw the implementation of the Remain in Mexico policy that resulted in asylum-seekers being required to wait south of the border. He also carried out the Title 42 implementation, when illegal immigrants who crossed the border were immediately turned back amid the pandemic.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration let Scott go as U.S. Border Patrol chief in August 2021 after he came out against banning the term “illegal alien,” as the leader of the 60,000-person federal agency inside the Department of Homeland Security.
The 29-year law enforcement veteran took on a visiting fellow role at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, Texas, since leaving the Border Patrol.
Scott told the Washington Examiner in October 2020 that his goal as the leader of the 20,000-agent organization was to restore public trust in law enforcement after a turbulent few years of public scrutiny.
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Under Biden, CBP was run for the majority of the term by Troy Miller.
Chris Magnus, previously police chief of Tucson, Arizona, was nominated in April 2021 but was not confirmed until later that year. Magnus was forced out less than a year on the job and resigned in November 2022.
