Trump pick to guide CBP

Washington – The candidate of President Trump, the US -Zoll and Border Protection is to be managed for his role in an examination of the death of a migrant who was brutally beaten by border patrols in 2010.

Critics claim that Rodney Scott had participated in a cover -up and was not qualified to lead the agency. His defenders say that he acted appropriately and a good choice to lead one of the largest federal authorities with more than 60,000 employees, including the border police and agents in the entrance ports.

Rodney Scott, who headed the US border police until 2021, stood questions about the death of the senators on Wednesday during a hearing from the Senate Finance Committee to examine his nomination.

“Today's hearing is to determine whether Rodney Scott has this experience, together with the strength of the character, which is familiar with one of the most important jobs in the government,” said Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR.). “The evidence shows that it is neglected.”

Scott was the deputy chief policeman of the Border Patrol sector in San Diego, as agents who prepared to deport anastasio Hernández Rojas, and defeated him on a sidewalk at the port of San Ysidro at the entrance until he stopped breathing. He died in a hospital two days later and left a woman and five children.

Federal official said Hernández Rojas, 42, fought with the agents who tried to remove him from the country.

Last week Wyden sent a letter to the Ministry of Homeland Security to apply for documents in connection with death and examination. The answer from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday did not contain any documents. She described Wyden's “uninformed” report on Scott's alleged role in the study “angry and insulting”.

Noem said Scott was not at the scene when the incident took place, only a limited participation in an internal examination team that checked the case, and did not hinder the external examinations or hinder facts.

“No fewer than seven local and federal investigations checked the circumstances of Mr. Hernández Rojas, and no evidence of actions that were right, regulation or politics,” wrote Noem.

Roxanna Altholz, director of the Human Rights Clinic of the UC Berkeley Law, who represents the family of Hernández Rojas, said in a statement that the family had never received a complete accounting for the investigation.

“His family has asked the same question for years: How can 17 agents of the country's largest law enforcement agency, customs and border protection, pose a man in public before dozens of eyewitnesses on video tapes without consistency?” She wrote.

In 2017, the government enclosed a federal law with the family of Hernández Rojas for $ 1 million.

In a pioneering decision on Wednesday, an international human rights commission found that the United States is responsible for the murder of Hernández Rojas and that a cover -up was followed. Inter-American human rights commission-a autonomous judicial body within the organization of American states asked the United States to reopen the criminal investigation of the agents involved.

Wyden exclaimed no one during the hearing because he had not created the documents he requested.

“The secretary replied with a letter in which Mr. Scott was basically a perfect angel, and all allegations against him are wrong, but no documents that I requested to secure it,” said Wyden. “In the first 100 days of this administration, it seems that this agency was practically allergic to the truth.”

Before the hearing on Wednesday, James Wong, a former deputy commissioner of the CBP office for internal affairs, wrote to Wyden with concern about Scott's dealings with Hernandez Rojas' death.

Units known as Critical Incident Teams (CIT) that were dissolved in 2022 examined the use of Force-of-force incidents in the border patrol. You should “weaken” the liability for the management of the border patrol and present the border patrol in the best possible light, wrote Wong.

The team used an administrative summons that Scott had signed in order to obtain the medical documents from Hernández Rojas. Wong said that “obviously illegal” is “obviously used for the very limited purpose of the examination of imports and exports, not for the collection of medical evidence or the search for a premises”.

“Due to his position, Mr. Scott would have supervised all CIT operations in the case and all CIT information would have filtered him for the CBP headquarters,” wrote Wong. “This was not an investigation, it was a cover-up-a Mr. Scott supervised.”

In her letter to Wyden, Noem wrote that “Mr. Scott's signature and the execution of the administrative guidelines he signed matched with legal and agency guidelines.”

According to court files, officials deleted photos and videos from the witnesses' telephones on site. The Critical Incident team rejected the medical records of San Diego Hernández Rojas. The film material of the scene was written with new recordings.

Senator Mike Crapo (R-IDAHO) asked Scott whether he “” something in this case to disturb the examination “.

“Absolutely not,” replied Scott.

Wyden also had problems with other incidents in Scott's past and said he had not learned from his mistakes.

One of them was SCOTT's membership in a private Facebook group for border police officers with more than 9,000 members who contained racist and sexually violent contributions.

Wyden also quoted Scott's reaction to a former border protection officer and surviving sexual attacks that Scott criticized to X.

Scott replied with his own contribution:

“I examined all of your allegations. No evidence credible could be found.

A judge named Scott's post “A Classic Rape Threat”, but did not find it to be an immediate threat from violence.

Scott defended his recording and said he was transparent throughout his career. He said he apologized to the former agent for his post and described him as a “weak moment” that should not be threatening.

“Everyone makes mistakes,” he said. “I think those I did were very low. We learn from them and go forward.”

In 2021, Biden administration forced Scott from his role at Border Patrol, after leaning against the instructions, not to use terms such as “illegal foreigners”.

On Wednesday, both Democrats and Republicans congratulate Scott on his nomination. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Suggested that trying to move his nomination forward would not be successful.

“I apologize for the smear campaign,” he said to Scott.