Politics
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.
Politics
Federal judge blocks Trump from cutting childcare funds to Democratic states over fraud concerns
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A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from stopping subsidies on childcare programs in five states, including Minnesota, amid allegations of fraud.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, a Biden appointee, didn’t rule on the legality of the funding freeze, but said the states had met the legal threshold to maintain the “status quo” on funding for at least two weeks while arguments continue.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns.
The programs include the Child Care and Development Fund, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Social Services Block Grant, all of which help needy families.
USDA IMMEDIATELY SUSPENDS ALL FEDERAL FUNDING TO MINNESOTA AMID FRAUD INVESTIGATION
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
“Families who rely on childcare and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement on Tuesday.
The states, which include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, argued in court filings that the federal government didn’t have the legal right to end the funds and that the new policy is creating “operational chaos” in the states.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian at his nomination hearing in 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In total, the states said they receive more than $10 billion in federal funding for the programs.
HHS said it had “reason to believe” that the programs were offering funds to people in the country illegally.
‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL
The table above shows the five states and their social safety net funding for various programs which are being withheld by the Trump administration over allegations of fraud. (AP Digital Embed)
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.” (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital has reached out to HHS for comment.
In what might be the most decisive critique yet of President Trump’s remake of the Kennedy Center, the Washington National Opera’s board approved a resolution on Friday to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971.
“Today, the Washington National Opera announced its decision to seek an amicable early termination of its affiliation agreement with the Kennedy Center and resume operations as a fully independent nonprofit entity,” the company said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Roma Daravi, Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, described the relationship with Washington National Opera as “financially challenging.”
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with the WNO due to a financially challenging relationship,” Daravi said in a statement. “We believe this represents the best path forward for both organizations and enables us to make responsible choices that support the financial stability and long-term future of the Trump Kennedy Center.”
Kennedy Center President Ambassador Richard Grenell tweeted that the call was made by the Kennedy Center, writing that its leadership had “approached the Opera leadership last year with this idea and they began to be open to it.”
“Having an exclusive relationship has been extremely expensive and limiting in choice and variety,” Grenell wrote. “We have spent millions of dollars to support the Washington Opera’s exclusivity and yet they were still millions of dollars in the hole – and getting worse.”
WNO’s decision to vacate the Kennedy Center’s 2,364-seat Opera House comes amid a wave of artist cancellations that came after the venue’s board voted to rename the center the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. New signage featuring Trump’s name went up on the building’s exterior just days after the vote while debate raged over whether an official name change could be made without congressional approval.
That same day, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) — an ex officio member of the board — wrote on social media that the vote was not unanimous and that she and others who might have voiced their dissent were muted on the call.
Grenell countered that ex officio members don’t get a vote.
Cancellations soon began to mount — as did Kennedy Center‘s rebukes against the artists who chose not to appear. Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of his annual Christmas Eve concert; jazz supergroup the Cookers nixed New Year’s Eve shows; New York-based Doug Varone and Dancers dropped out of April performances; and Grammy Award-winning banjo player Béla Fleck wrote on social media that he would no longer play at the venue in February.
WNO’s departure, however, represents a new level of artist defection. The company’s name is synonymous with the Kennedy Center and it has served as an artistic center of gravity for the complex since the building first opened.
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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leveling a stunning accusation at Vice President JD Vance amid the national furor over this week’s fatal shooting in Minnesota involving an ICE agent.
“I understand that Vice President Vance believes that shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not,” the four-term federal lawmaker from New York and progressive champion argued as she answered questions on Friday on Capitol Hill from Fox News and other news organizations.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good after she confronted ICE agents from inside her car in Minneapolis.
RENEE NICOLE GOOD PART OF ‘ICE WATCH’ GROUP, DHS SOURCES SAY
Members of law enforcement work the scene following a suspected shooting by an ICE agent during federal operations on January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Video of the incident instantly went viral, and while Democrats have heavily criticized the shooting, the Trump administration is vocally defending the actions of the ICE agent.
HEAD HERE FOR LIVE FOX NEWS UPDATES ON THE ICE SHOOTING IN MINNESOTA
Vance, at a White House briefing on Thursday, charged that “this was an attack on federal law enforcement. This was an attack on law and order.”
“That woman was there to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation,” the vice president added. “The president stands with ICE, I stand with ICE, we stand with all of our law enforcement officers.”
And Vance claimed Good was “brainwashed” and suggested she was connected to a “broader, left-wing network.”
Federal sources told Fox News on Friday that Good, who was a mother of three, worked as a Minneapolis-based immigration activist serving as a member of “ICE Watch.”
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Ocasio-Cortez, in responding to Vance’s comments, said, “That is a fundamental difference between Vice President Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.”
But a spokesperson for the vice president, responding to Ocasio-Cortez’s accusation, told Fox News Digital, “On National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, AOC made it clear she thinks that radical leftists should be able to mow down ICE officials in broad daylight. She should be ashamed of herself. The Vice President stands with ICE and the brave men and women of law enforcement, and so do the American people.”
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