On Friday night, D.C. tipsheet Politico published an article headlined “DHS turns on border chief over $2M office renovation plan”. Even in a city where hatchet jobs are standard operating procedure, this one stands out, not only for its inanity but also for its ham-fisted approach. Regardless, it suggests some Trump insiders are opposed to the operational control CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott has brought to our borders and ports. Shame on them.
Rodney Scott
Scott is the sixth commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the first Senate-confirmed one since Biden’s choice, Chris Magnus, resigned from the position amidst controversy in November 2022.
He’s also the first CBP commissioner to have been chief of the Border Patrol, having served in that role beginning in 2020 and throughout the early months of the last administration.
Scott came to my attention in September 2021, after he stepped down as the 24th Border Patrol chief. That’s when he sent a letter in his private capacity to Senate leadership, warning them of the national-security dangers inherent in the Biden administration’s migrant policies.
As I noted shortly after it was publicly released, Scott’s letter was “an eye-opening, informative, and at times scary read”.
It also presaged the then-brewing border disaster, with Scott explaining how: “Common sense border security recommendations from experienced career professionals [were] ignored and stymied by inexperienced political employees ... laser-focused on expediting the flow of migrants into the U.S.”
Scott was not only the best choice to take the CBP helm and clean up the damage that had occurred over the previous four years when Trump tapped him six weeks before the inauguration, but he was the only person to do the job, arriving with 29 years of law-enforcement experience and the support of agents.
The Border Miracle
And Scott did not disappoint my expectations after he arrived back at CBP headquarters.
Border Patrol apprehensions at the Southwest border immediately plummeted, falling from more than 47,000 in December 2024 (a “good” month by Biden administration standards) to fewer than 8,400 in February (the first full month of Trump II).
In July, monthly Southwest border apprehensions reached the lowest level ever recorded, as agents nabbed fewer than 4,600 illegal entrants at the U.S.-Mexico line during what traditionally has been one of the busier “travel months” there.
Nationwide CBP encounters of inadmissible aliens at the ports of entry tumbled as well, dropping from more than 76,000 in December 2024 to fewer than 19,400 in February, eventually cratering at 17,800 in September.
Many of those improvements had to do with the president’s border policies, or more precisely with Trump’s recission of the senseless migrant-release policies of the prior administration.
That said, smugglers — who are both evil predators and wily businessmen — and immigrant “advocates” managed to quickly subvert similar policies adopted under Trump I, but they haven’t had the same success now that he’s returned with a new team for a second round.
Ten full months into the first Trump administration, in December 2017, CBP recorded more than 40,500 total Southwest border encounters, including nearly 29,000 apprehensions of illegal migrants; 10 months into Trump II, there were exactly 10,000 total encounters there, 6,478 of them migrant apprehensions.
That’s likely because inadmissible “applicants for admission” (a category that includes illegal entrants) know that if they get caught, they’re going to be detained — as the law has long required, but which prior administrations failed or refused to do.
Not a single illegal migrant has been released by Border Patrol since last April, and just eight have been cut loose since Scott became commissioner.
That’s the definition of the “operational control” Congress mandated in 2006, but which then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas suggested was simply an aspirational goal under Biden. It’s a reality under Scott.
In football, it’s said a guard or tackle has had a good game when you don’t hear his name; that’s because announcers only mention offensive linemen when they screw up with false starts, missed blocks, or failures to control their gaps.
Scott is the Anthony Muñoz, Jonathan Ogden, or Joe Thomas of border security, the quarterback’s blindside defender known to true aficionados of the game but whose names only become well-known when they head to the Hall of Fame.
As you can tell, I’m both a gridiron and a secure border fan, and if there were trading cards for Scott, I’d have a few in a shoebox under my bed.
Politico’s Weekend Drive-By Sliming
Plainly, however, someone in the administration is not as big on national sovereignty and security as me, which brings me to the weekend drive-by sliming of Scott in Politico.
Before immigration, I trained for government contracting and construction law. I assisted the two professors who created the field of government contracts, edited their textbooks, and spent my (crucial) second-year summer at a firm that specialized in those areas.
Many days I wish I had stuck with it, but in any event, government contracting and construction are areas I’m familiar with.
As the title of the Politico article suggests, the focus is on an alleged “redecoration” request Scott’s subordinates submitted for offices at CBP HQ at the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C.
It begins:
Infighting in the Department of Homeland Security — as the agency reels from a deadly confrontation with an American citizen — has gotten so bad that its leadership has turned on one of its own commissioners, ostensibly over $137,000 in front office upgrades.
That’s a specific figure (as are others in the piece), suggesting this row is not so much about “upgrades” or “infighting” as it is backstabbing by someone in the know.
Skip down a few paragraphs and you’ll come to this:
Top officials working for Scott, a longtime law enforcement official who came up through the ranks of the U.S. Border Patrol, started drafting a $2.1 million request for the renovation project in September. It included a budget for $299,850 on furniture, $86,733 on “services” related to the furniture and $33,000 on “window treatments, millwork, and equipment” for the 1,100 square-foot commissioner suite, according to the memo. POLITICO obtained a copy of the memo that was approved by DHS acting CFO Holly Mehringer on Nov. 17.
. . .
“The space finishes are damaged, peeling, and antiquated,” said the memo, which added that less than two percent of the project [less than $42,000] was for Scott’s personal office.
As an erstwhile government contracts/construction drone, such refurbishments are common, especially in a building that’s 30 years old. Even back then, they didn’t build them like they once did (drywall had long since replaced plaster, and metal studs were swapped for wood, for example) and that, coupled with technological advances in the past three decades, has required almost constant upgrades.
Additionally, in public spaces where high-ranking government officials (like the CBP commissioner) meet with other officials, industry leaders, and foreign dignitaries daily, regular updates aren’t optional — they’re mandatory.
The torn carpets and mysterious stains that preceded me were fine when I was a congressional staffer in a basement office (until the day Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) showed up unannounced), but every one of my members’ offices had to be refreshed and refurbished before they were allowed to walk in the door.
Even then, I was not allowed to move my desk or hang a single picture on my dingy office wall; I had to send a request to the Architect of the Capitol, which would then dispatch guys with a cart down to do it for me. That’s the “services” referenced.
Those requirements were imposed because government offices don’t belong to their current occupants; they belong to the government, and any change is complicated and catalogued (and usually not cheap).
The insider source or sources know the costs referenced are common and comparably modest, but they assume taxpayers don’t. That’s why they used those expenses to target Scott. Shame on them, but reserve some opprobium for Politico for participating in this tawdry charade. If the commissioner leaves, don’t be surprised if the current unprecedented level of security is the next thing to go.