Former Border Patrol Chief Slams Biden Administration for Allegedly Covering Up Information on Migrants with Potential Terrorist Ties

A former Border Patrol sector chief told lawmakers he could not inform the public about migrants who posed a potential terrorism threat because, he said, the Biden administration wanted to downplay the threat.

“In San Diego, we’ve had an exponential increase in the number of significant interest aliens (SIAs). These are aliens with significant ties to terrorism,” former San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Officer Aaron Heitke told lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee.

“Before this administration, the San Diego sector averaged 10 to 15 SIAs per year. Once word got out that it was much easier to cross the border, San Diego saw over 100 SIAs in 2022, well over 100 SIAs in 2023, and more than that this year,” he warned. “Those are just the ones we caught.”

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Heitke says he was told he could not reveal information about the raise.

“I was then told I could not disclose any information about the increase in SIA or mention any arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border,” he said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on Heitke’s statements.

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The statements were made at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing titled “A Borderless Nation: How the Biden-Harris Open Borders Policy Has Undermined Our Security.”

Immigration will be a key issue in the 2024 election, with Republicans blaming the crisis on the Biden administration’s policies and the rollback of Trump-era policies.

“As we continue to witness Biden and Harris’ resistance to doing anything significant about this disaster, we have to ask ourselves — why? Why did they allow this crisis to occur and why did they allow it to continue,” said committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., in a statement.

Heitke also told the committee that he would be releasing illegal immigrants “by the hundreds” each day, and that flights had been arranged to send migrants from San Diego to Texas, at a cost of about $150,000 per flight. He also testified that he had to close traffic checkpoints in San Diego to direct resources to the border, and that these checkpoints were crucial to interdicting drugs such as fentanyl.

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Democrats and the administration have accused Republicans of failing to support funding and reform bills — including a bipartisan Senate bill released this year — and say the administration’s latest actions are aimed at limiting encounters at the border and securing it.

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“Although you probably won’t hear it from the people on the other end, border meetings are at their lowest levels in years since the president issued a proclamation on June 4, and encounters at the border and ports of entry have dropped 55%, with the Border Patrol reporting its lowest number of encounters at the border since September 2020,” committee member Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said at the hearing.