The former head of the Southwest San Diego Border Patrol has accused the Biden-Harris administration of trying to hide the scale of terrorist activity at the border.
Former Border Patrol agent Aaron Heydtke, speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, said he was ordered by senior administration officials not to talk about the number of terrorism suspects the Border Patrol has arrested.
Another witness was Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who was murdered in Harford County, Maryland, by an illegal immigrant, a Salvadoran murderer currently on the run in his home country on the same charges.
Concerns expressed by the Biden-Harris Administration: Zero.
Heitke Statement
Heitke noted that the only solution to illegal immigration is deportation, and that the number of countries accepting deportees is steadily decreasing.
I've served for 25 years under five different administrations, and for the first time, whether by neglect or design, I've seen massive deficiencies in our ability to repatriate people to their countries of origin.
The administration also significantly reduced detention space for illegal immigrants and closed private detention facilities. “Word spread quickly around the world that so many illegal immigrants were being released into the United States,” Heitke said. Illegal immigrants crossing the border “had increased exponentially,” he said, and his border control division was “ordered to accept and process all illegal immigrants that we encounter at the border.”
The process required removing nearly all Border Patrol agents from border patrol operations. “Border Patrol areas in Texas, Arizona and California have been without agents for weeks or months,” he continued.
Those who didn't want to get caught could just walk in. We have no idea who or what entered our country during this time. In 2022-2023, I sent agents to Texas and Arizona to count the fugitives. Those sectors didn't even have enough agents on the ground to see what they missed.
But deliberate chaos was not the worst thing the administration did.
Heitke's San Diego district has seen a “surge in foreign nationals of significant interest,” he said. “These are foreign nationals with significant ties to terrorism.”
Heitke said in his testimony that prior to the Biden-Harris administration, the field saw 10 to 15 terrorism suspects per year, but once word spread that Biden had an open border, SIAs would skyrocket, reaching 100 in 2022, more than 100 in 2023 and even more in 2024.
He added:
At the time, I was told I could not release information about the increase in SIAs or mention arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border.
When it comes to drug trafficking, the San Diego industry accounts for 80 to 90 percent of the fentanyl and methamphetamine seized each year. During my final year with the Border Patrol, the supply of fentanyl was so high that the price plummeted, from $10 a pill to 25 cents.
Heitke continues.
To make matters worse, in 2022-2023, we had to close the San Diego crossing, which is essential for drug enforcement, because resources were being diverted to processing and release missions. That had, and still has, a negative impact on the San Diego community. I had to release hundreds of illegal immigrants every day to communities that could not support them. To calm this problem, two flights a week were provided from San Diego to Texas. These flights were just carrying immigrants to Texas who were supposed to be released in San Diego. Each flight cost about $150,000. This was the administration's way of trying to calm the entire border crisis.
According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 736 terrorism suspects on the FBI's watch list attempted to cross the border or showed up at a port of entry in fiscal year 2023. In fiscal year 2022, the number was 438.
So far this fiscal year, which ends in 10 days, there have been 469 cases.
Morin Statement
Patricia Morin told committee members about her daughter, who was raped and murdered by MS-13 gang member Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, who police allege killed Rachel Morin, a mother of five, on Mama & Pa Trail in Harford County, Maryland.
Hernandez, who has been deported three times, fled a murder charge in El Salvador and crossed the southwest border in February 2023. He then assaulted a 9-year-old girl and her mother in California. DNA from the crime scene matched DNA found on clothing left behind in Maryland.
Police arrested him at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His trial begins on October 23rd.
“President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' open border policies are having a devastating impact across our great nation,” Morin told the committee.
I live 1,800 miles from the southern border, in a small town in northern Maryland, yet a man wanted for murder in El Salvador came to my town and ambushed my daughter on a quaint walk in broad daylight.
Maureen said Rachel grew up walking the trail, and the family assumed it was safe. “We never imagined a predator would target Rachel while she was out jogging on that sunny day in August 2023,” Maureen said.
Morin spoke of the toll it has had on her family, particularly Rachel's children, one of whom is pregnant.
“We were relieved when the suspect was finally caught,” she said.
But that relief quickly turned to fear and indignation when they learned the suspect was an illegal immigrant who had entered our country despite being wanted for the murder of a woman in his home country.
What's worse, if the Border Patrol had followed the law and administered DNA tests the first three times he tried to enter the country, they would have known. They refused him entry, then allowed him in again and again until he was allowed through the border.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' open border policies caused my daughter's death.
Sadly, as many American families know all too well, Morin is not the only victim of this policy.
