Trump pick to lead CBP accused of ‘cover-up’ over death of man at California border

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s nominee to lead U.S. Customs and Border Protection is facing scrutiny for his role in an investigation into the death of a migrant who was brutally beaten by Border Patrol agents in 2010.

Critics allege Rodney Scott participated in a cover-up and is unqualified to lead the agency. His defenders say he acted appropriately and called him a fine choice to head one of the largest federal agencies with more than 60,000 employees, including the Border Patrol and agents at ports of entry.

Rodney Scott, who led the U.S. Border Patrol until 2021, faced questions about the death from senators Wednesday during a Senate Finance Committee hearing to consider his nomination.

“Today’s hearing is to determine whether Rodney Scott possesses that experience, along with the strength of character to be trusted with one of the most essential jobs in government,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “The evidence shows that he falls short.”

Scott was acting deputy chief patrol agent of the San Diego Border Patrol Sector when agents preparing to deport Anastasio Hernández Rojas beat and tased him in a walkway at the San Ysidro Port of Entry until he stopped breathing, court records show. He died in a hospital two days later, leaving behind a wife and five children.

Federal officials said Hernández Rojas, 42, fought with the agents attempting to remove him from the country.

Last week Wyden sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security seeking documents related to the death and investigation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s response Tuesday did not include documents. She called Wyden’s “uninformed” account of Scott’s alleged role in the investigation “infuriating and offensive.”

Noem said Scott was not at the scene when the incident occurred, had limited involvement with an internal investigative team that reviewed the case, and didn’t impede external investigations or conceal facts.

“No less than seven local and federal investigatory bodies reviewed the circumstances of Mr. Hernández Rojas’ death, and none found evidence of actions that were inconsistent with law, regulation, or policy,” Noem wrote.

Roxanna Altholz, director of the Human Rights Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, which represents the family of Hernández Rojas, said in a statement that the family has never received a full accounting of how the investigation was handled.

“His family has spent years asking the same question: How can 17 agents of the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, Customs and Border Protection, beat to death a man in public in front of dozens of eyewitnesses on videotape without consequence?” she wrote.

In 2017, the government settled a federal lawsuit with Hernández Rojas’ family for $1 million.

In a landmark decision Wednesday, an international human rights commission found that the U.S. is responsible for Hernández Rojas’ killing and that a cover-up followed. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — an autonomous judicial body within the Organization of American States — called on the U.S. to reopen the criminal investigation of the agents involved.

During the hearing, Wyden called out Noem for not producing the documents he requested.

“The secretary responded with a letter that said Mr. Scott was basically a perfect angel and all the allegations against him are false, but produced zero documents that I requested to back it up,” Wyden said. “In the first 100 days of this administration it seems like this agency is practically allergic to the truth.”

Before Wednesday’s hearing, James Wong, a former deputy assistant commissioner of CBP’s office of internal affairs, wrote to Wyden with concern about Scott’s handling of Hernandez Rojas’ death.

Units known as critical incident teams (CIT), which were disbanded in 2022, investigated use-of-force incidents in the Border Patrol. They were “designed to mitigate liability for Border Patrol senior management and to present Border Patrol in the best possible light,” Wong wrote.

The team used an administrative subpoena, which Scott signed, to obtain Hernández Rojas’ medical records. Wong said that “was blatantly unlawful” because “such subpoenas should only be used for the very limited purpose of examining imports and exports, not for the collection of medical evidence or to search a premises.”

“By virtue of his position, Mr. Scott would have overseen all CIT operations on the case and all CIT information would have filtered through him to CBP headquarters,” Wong wrote. “This was not an investigation, it was a cover-up — one Mr. Scott supervised.”

Noem, in her letter to Wyden, wrote that “Mr. Scott’s signature, and the execution of the administrative subpoena he signed, were consistent with law and agency policy.”

According to court records, officials at the scene erased photos and videos from witnesses’ phones. The critical incident team declined to give San Diego police Hernández Rojas’ medical records. Footage of the scene was written over with new recordings.

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) asked Scott whether he did “anything in that case to interfere with the investigation.”

“Absolutely not,” Scott replied.

Wyden also took issue with other incidents in Scott’s past, saying he has not learned from his mistakes.

One of those was Scott’s membership in a private Facebook group for Border Patrol agents with more than 9,000 members that contained racist and sexually violent posts.

Wyden also cited Scott’s response to a former Border Patrol agent and survivor of sexual assault who posted criticism of Scott on X.

Scott responded with a post of his own:

“I investigated all your allegations. Not a crumb of evidence could be found to support any of them. But I did find out a lot about you. Lean back, close your eyes and just enjoy the show.”

A judge called Scott’s post “a classic rape threat” but found it fell short of being an imminent threat of violence.

Scott defended his record, saying he has been transparent throughout his career. He said he apologized to the former agent for his post, calling it “a weak moment” that wasn’t meant to be threatening.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” he said. “I believe the ones I’ve made were very minor. We learn from them and move forward.”

The Biden administration forced Scott out of his role at Border Patrol in 2021 after he objected to directives to stop using terms such as “illegal alien.”

On Wednesday, both Democrats and Republicans congratulated Scott on his nomination. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) suggested that the attempt to prevent his nomination from moving forward wouldn’t succeed.

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

Scott’s nomination hearing comes as Republicans advance budget legislation in the House and Senate that would provide billions of dollars to CBP. Illegal border crossings have plummeted over the last few months, federal data show.

The Trump administration eliminated many internal oversight bodies in Homeland Security, including the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which investigated allegations of wrongdoing.