A former Border Patrol sector chief told lawmakers that he was blocked from informing the public about migrants who may be potential terror threats, as he says the Biden administration wanted to downplay the threat.
“In San Diego, we had an exponential increase in Significant Interest Aliens [SIAs]. These are aliens with significant ties to terrorism,” former San Diego Sector Chief Patrol official Aaron Heitke told lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee.
“Prior to this administration, the San Diego sector averaged 10-15 SIAs per year. Once word was out that the border was far easier to cross, San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, way over 100 SIAs in 2023 and more than that this year,” he warned. “These are only the ones we caught.”
Immigrants line up at a remote U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Lukeville, Arizona, on Dec. 7, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Heitke says he was told he couldn’t release information about that increase.
“At the time, I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIAs or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on Heitke’s remarks.
VideoThe remarks came as part of a House Homeland Security Committee hearing called “A Country Without Borders: How Biden-Harris’ Open-Borders Policies Have Undermined Our Safety and Security.”
Immigration is a top 2024 election issue, and Republicans have blamed Biden administration policies and the rolling back of Trump-era policies for the crisis.
“As we continue to witness Biden and Harris’ resistance to doing anything meaningful about this disaster, we have to ask — why? Why did they let this crisis take place and why have they let it continue,” Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., told the committee.
Heitke also told the committee that he would release illegal aliens “by the hundreds” each day, and flights were provided to send migrants from San Diego to Texas, at approximately $150,000 per flight. He also testified that he had to shut down San Diego traffic checkpoints to divert resources to the border, and that those checkpoints are crucial for the interdiction of drugs like fentanyl.
Migrants walk along the highway through Suchiate, Chiapas state in southern Mexico, on July 21 during their journey north toward the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)
Democrats and the administration have accused Republicans of failing to back funding and reform bills — including a bipartisan Senate bill released this year — and say that recent moves by the administration are working to bring down border encounters and secure the border.
“While you probably won’t hear it from those on the other side,border encounters are at their lowest level in years since the president’s proclamation on June 4, and encounters along the border and ports of entry have decreased by 55%, with Border Patrol recording the lowest number of border encounters since September 2020,” ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said at the hearing.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.
He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.
