SAN DIEGO — Rodney Scott stepped on as head of the Border Patrol in January in the midst of a challenging few years for the 96-year-old organization.
This Southern Californian is never caught outdoors, even on the border, without his gold-framed aviator sunglasses and a freshly pressed uniform, but that is for a reason. His appearance is symbolic of how he wants his 19,554 agents to take their jobs and, in turn, be seen by the public.
“There’s going to be people that never, ever agree with our mission, but I just want you to know that when I speak, it’s the truth,” said Scott, who is seated next to me in the backseat of an SUV as we drive toward the Pacific coast. “You don’t even have to like what I have to say — just, I need that trust that when we speak, that’s our version of the truth that’s backed up with evidence.”
Unlike his bosses in the Department of Homeland Security, Scott is not a political appointee who must answer to the White House. He is a 28-year agent who was promoted internally. He has the freedom to lead how he sees fit, and his main mission, aside from the obvious one regarding border security, is to rebuild Border Patrol’s reputation, and in turn, rebuild public trust in the organization.
The Washington Examiner spent six hours with Scott in late October during a visit to San Diego, where he oversaw operations before heading to headquarters in Washington last summer. Scott spoke passionately about how he wants to see “a renewed focus on professionalism” among agents. He recently rolled out an internal campaign called “Honor First,” meant to remind agents that integrity is the most important thing about how they do their job, as well as vigilance and service to country.
“For law enforcement to succeed and be effective in an open and free society, [it] requires trust. If you don’t trust law enforcement — and I think this is what we’re seeing across the nation with the protests and everything else — things start breaking down very, very quickly,” said Scott. “I remind my agents that everything you do every day, either basically chisels away at public trust or adds to it.”
During last year’s humanitarian crisis of nearly half a million people who illegally immigrated to the United States with a family member, the organization was saddled with media reports about its poor treatment of children and adults. In one example, people were held outside an overcrowded border facility for days in triple-digit temperatures after being taken into custody along the border. Another example of how the organization has struggled to respond and communicate with the public is in its handling of agent-involved shootings.
“We were silent for so many years, and there would be allegations,” said Scott. “Law enforcement has always had the position, Border Patrol probably worse than most, that, ‘Hey, we try our cases in court, not the court of public opinion.’ So, we didn’t give out information. When we had use of force incidents, until a couple years ago, we’d be silent until the whole case is done a year from now, and no one cares about it anymore. Now, we get out with an initial statement with an hour trying to give updates within about 12 hours. We’re just trying to be more transparent.”
But in one incident prior to Scott’s appointment, a death in custody was not disclosed until reporters published a story. In December 2018, a Washington Post report revealed that a Guatemalan child had died after entering Border Patrol custody a week earlier.
Scott said getting ahead of these incidents is also a predicament for other law enforcement agencies. These types of situations have become increasingly complicated to resolve because activists call for immediate justice despite the organization’s responsibility to follow the legal procedures, which can take months to years.
I brought up a headline that his predecessor Carla Provost went up against last summer when a ProPublica story revealed that agents in a private 9,500-member Facebook group had made vile comments about Democratic lawmakers and immigrants in their custody. The issue was raised in congressional hearings and became a regular topic in media interviews last summer. The lesson Scott is trying to impart with agents now goes back to the organization’s “Honor First” motto and how one person’s poor decision can affect innocent employees.
“Everybody that happened to be on this site up until that point was asking about, ‘Hey, I’m looking to transfer to Texas. Is — is Eagle Pass a better job than the Del Rio?’ … ‘Hey, I had this crazy seizure,’” said Scott. “[Agents as a whole] were all villainized.”
Going forward, Scott wants to free up agents to speak about their work and get ahead of questionable incidents in their regions. He understands social media better than most 50-somethings, having created an Instagram account as San Diego chief. He used it to post informational videos about the organization’s work. It was among the first social media accounts of its kind for individual agents.
Under the Bush and Obama administrations, agents were not allowed to create professional accounts, Scott said. President Trump’s White House changed that and allowed him to set up top agents nationwide on Twitter and Instagram. Last winter, as Scott shifted into his job as chief, Border Patrol rolled out accounts for dozens of high-ranking personnel.
“This administration, from my perspective, from Day One has just said, ‘Go tell your story,’” said Scott. “I haven’t got anybody calling me telling me how to spin the story, tweak the story. It’s just, ‘Go tell America why you’re here, what you do, and what you need.’ That’s been refreshing.”
Scott hopes that agents’ newfound freedom to speak can provide better transparency and improve the public’s perception of Border Patrol regardless of the administration in office.
