The Biden-Harris administration instructed Border Patrol officials from releasing information to the American public on suspected terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a former senior agent claimed on Wednesday.
Speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee, retired Chief Border Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke alleged that administration officials told him he “could not release any names or information” on the increase of “significant interest aliens (SIAs)” — illegals with “significant ties to terrorism” — apprehended at the southern border. Heitke was promoted to chief patrol agent of the San Diego sector in February 2020 and retired last summer.
The former Border Patrol agent noted that the San Diego sector “averaged 10 to 15 SIA arrests per year” prior to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris taking office. Once “word got out” about the administration’s open border policies, the sector experienced an exponential increase in the number of SIAs apprehended by U.S. agents, Heitke contended.
After Biden and Harris took office, “San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, well over that in 2023, and even more than that registered this year,” he said. “These are only the ones we caught.”
Heitke claimed that in keeping information about suspected terrorists crossing the border hidden, the administration was “trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.”
In addition to a mass influx of fentanyl into the United States, the retired border chief noted how he had to “release illegal aliens by the hundreds each day into
