Exclusive – CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott: ‘We Know More About What's Crossing Our Borders Than We've Ever Known’

The Trump administration “knows more about what’s crossing our borders than we’ve ever known in the history of the United States,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott said on Tuesday. Scott spoke during a policy event in Washington, DC, with Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle about the stark difference between the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and the Biden administration’s open borders. “Just talk to us about the sheer difference in the numbers” between the Biden administration and the Trump administration, Boyle said. “So to put it simply: it’s night and day,” Scott replied. “So, due to the Trump administration’s — not just rhetoric — but actual actions, and then backing up the words, working with Congress and the Senate to get us additional funding, we literally took a border that was completely out of control during the Biden administration [and transformed it].” “As you know, [the Biden administration] had completely opened it up wide,” he continued. “I really want to highlight for everybody: there were hundreds of miles of border where no agent, no technology, or anything went for weeks, months on end. So, those chaotic numbers, I think they peaked at like 18,000 a day during the Biden administration. That’s basically gone, and why is it gone? Good policy. Agents and officers actually out doing their jobs, enforcing the law, and we took away the draw that no administration had ever been able to take away before, and that’s catch and release.” WATCH THE FULL EVENT: “It’s not out officially yet, but we’re going to report soon a full year with no releases from the border, from new entrants,” he announced. “That sent a message worldwide that there’s no return on your investment. Why are you going to go pay the cartels [and] put yourself in that danger? And the cartels — people miss this sometimes — the cartels need the illegal aliens. That’s a little extra money, but really, they need them to overwhelm law enforcement at the border so they can bring the higher-threat commodities, whether it be narcotics, whether it be people that pay more money to avoid being fingerprinted, terrorists, criminals, but they need clutter to drive their costs down. Now they don’t have it.” Scott said aggressive border security enforcement has dramatically dropped daily illegal entries at the border to as low as under 200 some days. “Numbers can be skewed in any way, shape over time. I’m not focused as much on the numbers. Today, we know more about what’s crossing our borders than we’ve ever known in the history of the United States. That situational awareness validates those numbers, and we’re down into like double, low, low, low double-digits knowing the gotaways because we know what’s going on. Those numbers were guesses before. Now, there’s a lot of science behind them,” he said. Tuesday’s event included a discussion with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin about border security, public safety, and American sovereignty. The event was held in partnership with CGCN and ALFA Institute. Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.