U.S. Media Exclusive: Border Patrol Chief Slams Biden, Law Says “Alien,” Biden Says “Non-Citizen”

The Breitbart News exclusively reported on April 27 that a law enforcement source, who wished to remain anonymous, provided the Breitbart News Texas Division with a memo written by United States Border Patrol Senior Chief Rodney S. Scott. In the April memo, Senior Chief Scott suggested to Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller that he could not endorse the new work exchange vocabulary developed by the Biden administration.

Biden’s policy requires that CBP and ICE agents not use the terms “alien, unaccompanied alien child, undocumented alien, illegal alien and assimilation” in internal and external communications, but must replace them with “noncitizen, noncitizen unaccompanied child, undocumented noncitizen and citizen integration. The policy took effect April 19.

Chief Scott’s memo recommends waiting for the enactment of the United States Citizenship Act of 2021, which would remove these prohibited terms from the current Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Under current immigration law, the term “alien” is legally defined as a foreign national in the United States.

Senior Chief Scott’s memo states that he will not undermine efforts to implement and enforce the new policy, but has reservations about politicizing the U.S. Border Patrol and gives reasons for doing so.

According to Senior Chief Scott, “The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) must be a non-political federal law enforcement agency. Over the years, many outside forces on both ends of the political spectrum have, intentionally or unintentionally, politicized the Border Patrol, which has resulted in the reputation of the Border Patrol suffering and mandating the use of terminology inconsistent with the law that threatens to further erode public trust in the Border Patrol.”

The policy was eventually implemented and remains in effect, despite First Captain Scott’s opposition. But the terminology in the Immigration and Nationality Act, the official reports and legal documents that cite it, are unaffected by the Biden policy.