Ex-Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz Once Claimed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Never Spoke with Him

The internet is abuzz with outrage following former Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz's startling revelation that neither President Joe Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris ever contacted him during his tenure, leaving critical issues unaddressed, as per Fox News.

Ortiz claimed in a Sunday interview that his men had turned into pawns in a political game that had let the cartels in Mexico, who dominate cross-border business, come out on top. "I've never had one conversation with the president or the vice president, for that matter," he stated. "And so I was the chief of the Border Patrol. I commanded 21,000 people, that's a problem."

After leading the Border Patrol for two years under President Biden and acting as deputy commander under President Donald Trump, Ortiz announced his retirement in May of last year. In November's presidential election, Americans' top concern appears to be the border crisis. And it took center stage last week when Trump and Biden made separate trips to various regions of the Texas frontier on the same day. According to Ortiz, too many decisions are being made for the wrong reasons.

In CBS's 60 Minutes, he said, "When agencies are making a decision based upon politics or whether they're gonna get media coverage ...Hey, we're gonna put all our personnel in this two-mile stretch" ... What about the other 200 miles?" Last week, it was reported that hundreds of individuals were traveling over 1000 miles to enter Arizona, from the quiet area of Texas chosen for Biden's visit.

In the meantime, a legal battle rages between the federal government and Texas over who controls the border. "In this political game between the two sides, National Guardsmen, even to some degree the Border Patrol agents have become pawns," Ortiz added. He went on to say that this was fantastic news for traffickers and smugglers. "The cartels, the criminal organizations, that's who's winning in all of this. They're sitting back reaping all the benefits while they watch the state of Texas and Washington, D.C., go at it," he declared.

Social media users criticized the Biden administration after Ortiz's disclosures. One user stated on X, "How can this possibly be??? The administration CARES SO MUCH about the border and yet not 1 call from Biden or the border czar, Harris. Watch what they do, not what they say. Raul Ortiz better get ready to be arrested by the FBI." "That's not surprising, for the Biden administration the chaos at the border was a solution, not a problem," another user wrote.

"Why the mixed signals," another added. "If they let someone speak who really knows what’s happening at the border they won’t be able to control the narrative with their low-information voters," another claimed. "That's not surprising, for the Biden administration the chaos at the border was a solution, not a problem," stated @politicswarblog.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 15, 2024. It has since been updated.