The former head of U.S. Border Patrol under President Joe Biden told CBS he never spoke to the president or the administration’s “border czar,” Vice President Kamala Harris, about the crisis at the southern border.
“I’ve never had one conversation with the president or the vice president,” said Raul Ortiz in a sit-down interview with CBS’s flagship program, “60 Minutes.” “I was the chief of the Border Patrol, I commanded 21,000 people. That’s a problem.”
Ortiz answered “most definitely” when asked if the Biden administration was sending “mixed messages” to migrants who cross the border.
Andrew “Art” Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) told The Federalist “Chief Ortiz’s admission is troubling” on a “number of levels.”
“[Ortiz] spent more than 20 months as the chief of the Border Patrol during a period of unprecedented illegal migration including, most significantly, when Title 42 ended,” Arthur said. “How is it possible that the president never spoke to him about the effects that the termination of Title 42 could have?”
“More generally, Chief Ortiz served during a period that northern cities began feeling the effects of their own migrant crises,” Arthur added. “That neither President Biden nor Vice President Harris — the latter of whom had illegal migration in her portfolio — never spoke to the chief not only reveals a lack of concern about the national-security and humanitarian effects of the crisis at the border itself, but a lack of respect for those cities and their residents.”
Ortiz gave the interview as Texas fights the administration to close the border. In January, the Supreme Court vacated an injunction that had temporarily barred the feds from removing razor wire Texas had erected along parts of the border to deter illegal crossings. Abbott has maintained orders for state agents to continue protecting parts of the southern border as states struggle to cope with the ongoing “invasion.”
The Biden administration expects 8 million migrants living in the United States by October representing a 167 percent increase over five years, according to the New York Post. Last month, House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the administration’s deliberate efforts to undermine the safety and security of the public with programs to procure an open border.
President Biden and former President Donald Trump both visited the border last week as immigration becomes the dominant issue in the fall election. A Gallup poll released last week showed immigration at the top of the list among problems facing the nation ranked by more than 1,000 U.S. adults.
In February, Politico reported that Biden is “considering a string of new executive actions and federal regulations in an effort to curb migration at the U.S. southern border.” The potential executive orders undermine the Democrats’ talking point that the president is powerless to confront the border crisis as millions pour into the country.
