Border Patrol chief, who supported wall, is leaving job

Elliot Spagat/AP

3 years ago

US President Donald Trump holds up a poster of before and after photos of a segment of the border wall prototypes with Chief Patrol Agent Rodney S. Scott in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN / ALTERNATIVE CROP (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

CALEXICO, Calif. (AP) — The chief of the Border Patrol said Wednesday he was leaving his job after less than two years in a position that lies in the crosshairs of polarizing political debate.

Rodney Scott wrote to agents that he will be reassigned.

“I will continue working hard to support you over the next several weeks to ensure a smooth transition,” he wrote.

Scott, a career agent, was appointed chief in January 2020 and enthusiastically embraced then-President Donald Trump’s policies, particularly on building a border wall. President Joe Biden has canceled wall construction, one of his predecessor’s top priorities.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Scott didn’t immediately respond to a text message.

Scott was raised in Nogales, Arizona, where his father commuted to work at a Mexican factory. He previously led the agency’s San Diego sector, where he spent much of his career.

He became an agent when San Diego was by far the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Traffic plummeted after the Clinton administration boosted enforcement in San Diego. But critics note the effort pushed people to remote parts of California and Arizona, where thousands have died in heat.

US President Donald Trump speaks with US Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott (R) as they participates in a ceremony commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona, June 23, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Kirstjen M. Nielsen, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tours the border area with San Diego Section Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott (L) at Borderfield State Park along the United States-Mexico Border fence in San Ysidro, California on November 20, 2018. – A US federal judge temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s administration from denying asylum to people who enter the country illegally, prompting the president to allege Tuesday that the court was biased against him. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker / AFP) (Photo credit should read SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes with Chief Patrol Agent Rodney S. Scott in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump holds up a poster of before and after photos of a segment of the border wall prototypes with Chief Patrol Agent Rodney S. Scott in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)