Former Biden Border Patrol chief: I would 'continue' to build the border wall

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Former Biden and Trump Border Patrol chief says America should build the wall

Biden's former Border Patrol chief, Rodney Scott, outlined what he would do if he had his way 'carte blanche' at the border.

The former Border Patrol chief under the Trump and Biden administration, Rodney Scott, discussed on "Special Report" what he would do were he to be in charge of the border. 

Scott said Wednesday that he would continue to build the border wall, adding that this was a mechanism Border Patrol deemed useful to reducing encounters. 

Department of Homeland Security among other personnel, Scott said, developed the idea for the border wall long before former President Donald Trump campaigned for the White House. "What would I do? Simply continue to build out the border wall — that those requirements were developed by seasoned Border Patrol agents based on where that infrastructure could make the biggest difference and the return on the investment in the long term," he said. 

At one point the Biden administration paid $5 million per day to contractors to not build the wall, according to Scott. 

BIDEN'S EX-BORDER SECURITY CHIEF: UNDER BIDEN, US PAYS 'TO NOT' BUILD THE WALL

"I think it's very important to speak out now. There's a lot of people in [Department of Homeland Security] who could tell this story, but they're in the confines of the structure."

Scott said he wants people involved in border security to be called to Congress because there they can "speak the truth … as opposed to right now they just can't."

Another aspect of Scott's ideal plan is to make sure that illegal crossings into the U.S. are penalized. "I would continue to invest in the people, but there's got to be a consequence for illegal entry," he said. 

Under President Joe Biden, encounters between Border Patrol and illegal immigrants have skyrocketed. In August, there were over 200,000 encounters, up 300% from the same month in 2020. 

"The border is wide open right now," he said. 

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Border Patrol is "overwhelmed" and beyond the point of "saturation" with encounters, Scott said. 

"There are huge sections of the U.S. border, you pick the state; we know we have thousands of people waiting to come across … There are hundreds of miles of border and there's not a single border agent right now. Why? Because they're in a soft-sided facility that we set up at another $5-6 million a month, to babysit, to process and to expedite the process of these people."

"You can be pro-border security, pro-law and order, and pro-immigration it just has to be legal," he said. "You can't have unabetted, illegal entry into the country and have any real belief that you have border security. And if you have no border security, you have … no national security."