U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said Tuesday that the Trump administration has achieved a level of border intelligence unmatched in American history, crediting real enforcement and advance data collection over the rhetoric and guesswork that defined the previous four years.
"Today, we know more about what's crossing our borders than we've ever known in the history of the United States," Scott said during a policy event in Washington, D.C., hosted by Breitbart News. "That situational awareness validates those numbers, and we're down into like double, low, low, low double-digits knowing the gotaways because we know what's going on. Those numbers were guesses before. Now, there's a lot of science behind them."
The event, held in partnership with CGCN and ALFA Institute, featured a discussion between Scott and Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, and included remarks from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on border security, public safety, and American sovereignty.
Scott drew a sharp contrast between the current administration and its predecessor, describing the shift in border enforcement as "pretty simple, it's night and day." He pointed to concrete actions rather than campaign promises: working with Congress and the Senate to secure additional funding, ending catch-and-release, and rebuilding the technological and personnel backbone that had been hollowed out.
"Due to the Trump administration's not just rhetoric but actual actions backing up the words, working with Congress and the Senate to get us additional funding, we literally took a border that was completely out of control during the Biden administration — as you know they completely opened it up wide," Scott said.
The numbers back him up. On September 16, CBP, Border Patrol, and the Department of Homeland Security announced 16 consecutive months of zero releases at the Southern border — a streak of historically low activity not seen in more than three decades. Daily apprehensions have dropped 94 percent compared to the Biden administration, according to the agencies.
Scott attributed those figures to sound policy, the diligence of agents and officers enforcing the law, and the end of catch-and-release. He added that CBP would soon announce a full year of no releases of new entrants at the border.
"That sent a message worldwide there's no return on your investment: Why are you going to pay the cartels and put yourself in that danger?" Scott said.
The commissioner also addressed the economic side of CBP's mission, saying economic security is "just as important to national security as the physical border." He described how cartels and nation-states exploit mass global trade to move precursor chemicals, synthetic narcotics, and fentanyl into the country — often using the cover of illegal border crossings as a distraction.
"The ones that get the most attention are literally the precursor chemicals, the synthetic narcotics, the fentanyl, trying to use the cover of mass global trade to hide the commodity, just like they use massive amounts of illegal aliens at the border to hide the bigger threat," Scott said.
"Companies, nation states try to use the global trade — but that was that customs EO we put out that's mandating more and more information be provided to us in advance so that we can target and figure out where those commodities are."
That executive order, signed by President Donald Trump in June, cracked down on the smuggling of illegal goods into the United States by requiring advance data from shippers — a move Scott said is already paying dividends in targeting and interdiction.
Scott's remarks come as the Trump administration continues its broader immigration enforcement push, including mass deportation operations, border wall completion, and the reversal of Biden-era policies that critics say turned the Southern border into a highway for cartels and human traffickers.
Breitbart also reported Tuesday that Scott framed the current moment as a message to global investors and smuggling networks alike: the border is no longer open for business.
"They need clutter to drive their costs down, and now they don't have it," Scott said of the cartels.
Our Take
For four years, Americans were told the border was fine, that the chaos was a myth, and that anyone who pointed at the caravans and fentanyl deaths was a xenophobe. Now the man in charge of securing that border says the quiet part out loud: the numbers under Biden were guesses. Made-up. Political theater meant to keep the public in the dark.
Rodney Scott's testimony is a direct rebuke to the legacy media and the open-borders activists who spent years insisting there was no crisis. There was one. And it was deliberate.
What does this mean for everyday Americans? Fewer fentanyl-laced pills in your kids' schools. Fewer unvetted strangers released into your neighborhoods. Lower costs for taxpayers footing the bill for illegal immigration. And a clear message to the rest of the world: the Trump administration is not playing games.
The real question now is whether Republicans in Congress will fully fund the wall, the technology, and the agents needed to lock in these gains permanently — or whether they'll let the Left's next president open the floodgates all over again. Patriots, stay loud. The fight isn't over.
