Whether it’s a family or a single male, the drug cartels play a role in every illegal crossing into the U.S. at the southern border, former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott says.

“They’re either directly paying the cartels or the cartels are controlling their movements for another benefit, meaning to systematically overwhelm Border Patrol, create a gap in the border security, and then bring the narcotics across,” Scott says.   

Scott, who worked in U.S. Customs and Border Protection for three decades, served as the 24th chief of the Border Patrol from Jan. 24, 2020, until Aug. 14, 2021. Through his decades of work on the border, Scott says, he observed that “every single day, almost without exception until January of 2021 [when President Joe Biden took office], the border was getting more and more secure.” 

The cartels are taking advantage of the Biden administration’s border policies, Scott says, explaining that because most illegal aliens coming across the border are released into the U.S. interior, the cartels “push [asylum-seekers] all across at the same time.”

The result, he says, is that “it overwhelms all the law enforcement resources so that [the cartels] can push a second wave through, commonly referred to nowadays as ‘gotaways.'”

The gotaways tend to be individuals who are “willing to pay more to not encounter a law enforcement officer,” Scott says, adding, “That’s where most of the narcotics [are]. That’s where most of the criminal aliens are.”

Scott joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the long-term implications of Biden’s border policies and why Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is allowing the crisis to continue at the southern border. 

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