Aaron Heitke, the recently retired chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego Sector.
said Members of the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday accused the Biden-Harris administration of concealing information about illegal immigration with ties to terrorism from the American public as part of an effort to “de-escalate the crisis across the border.”
“The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat on the border,” Heydtke testified, noting that this was the furthest thing from the truth.
In his opening statement, the former department chief, who served under five different administrations, cited the influx of illegal immigrants that occurred after President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office and continues to occur since then.
Heitke said the Biden-Harris administration has immediately reduced detention space and ordered departments to “accept and process all illegal immigrants encountered at the border.”
The foreigners quickly learned that this meant the Biden-Harris administration would unleash them on American soil.
“Word spread quickly around the world that so many illegal immigrants were being released into the United States,” Heitke said, adding that Border Patrol was quickly inundated with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants wanting to turn themselves in, many of whom were apparently being flown to Texas.
According to a former department chief, the immediate impact of this surge was that 60% to 90% and sometimes all of the agents on duty were removed from the border, effectively rendering the border unsecured, with “Border Patrol areas in Texas, Arizona and California unmanned for weeks or months at a time.”
As a result, illegal immigrants are hesitant to turn themselves in.
Millions of people “We have no idea who or what has entered our country during this time,” Heitke stressed, adding that it is not easy to enter the United States.
This alone was enough to endanger America's security, Rachel Maurin's mother, Patty Maurin, said in testimony to the committee.
“They're letting them invade our smallest towns and our people are dying.”
Rachel Morin was a mother of five living in Maryland who was brutally raped and murdered last year. The murder suspect, arrested in June, is a Salvadoran national who entered the United States illegally in February 2023.
Following the arrest of Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gullah revealed that the suspect had fled to the United States after murdering a young woman the previous month. Just weeks after crossing the border, the suspect broke into a home in Los Angeles and brutally attacked a 9-year-old girl and her mother.
Rep. Patty Morin told the committee, “Everybody says the border is safe. We live 1,800 miles from the southern border. It's not safe. It's not safe. You have sanctuary cities in your state? It's not safe.”
“They're bringing criminals into our country, they're bringing them into our small towns and our people are dying,” Morin added.
Heitke noted that at the same time illegal immigrants like Martinez-Hernandez were entering the U.S., “San Diego has seen a rapid rise in aliens of interest. These are aliens with significant ties to terrorism.”
Heitke noted that during the Trump administration, the San Diego division averaged 10 to 15 SIAs per year, a number that has skyrocketed under Democratic administrations.
“Once word gets out that it's much easier to cross the border, San Diego will have over 100 SIAs in 2022, well over 100 SIAs in 2023 and even more this year. And that's just the numbers that we have,” Heydtke said.
It's unclear how many of the millions of “fugitives” who entered the country during Harris' time as border official have terrorist ties or are terrorists themselves.
“At the time, I was told I couldn't release information about the increase in SIAs or mention any arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border.”
Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-New York) asked the former department chief what he knew about fugitives who had entered the United States.
“None at all,” Heydtke replied. D'Esposito responded: “We have zero information on millions of people, some of whom are on terror watch lists. Do we have no information at all?”
“That's correct,” Heitke replied.
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