The Biden-Harris administration instructed Border Patrol officials from releasing information to the American public on suspected terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a former senior agent claimed on Wednesday.

Speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee, retired Chief Border Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke alleged that administration officials told him he “could not release any names or information” on the increase of “significant interest aliens (SIAs)” — illegals with “significant ties to terrorism” — apprehended at the southern border. Heitke was promoted to chief patrol agent of the San Diego sector in February 2020 and retired last summer.

The former Border Patrol agent noted that the San Diego sector “averaged 10 to 15 SIA arrests per year” prior to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris taking office. Once “word got out” about the administration’s open border policies, the sector experienced an exponential increase in the number of SIAs apprehended by U.S. agents, Heitke contended.

After Biden and Harris took office, “San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, well over that in 2023, and even more than that registered this year,” he said. “These are only the ones we caught.”

Heitke claimed that in keeping information about suspected terrorists crossing the border hidden, the administration was “trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.”

In addition to a mass influx of fentanyl into the United States, the retired border chief noted how he had to “release illegal aliens by the hundreds each day into communities who could not support them.”

“To quiet the problem, two flights a week were provided from San Diego to Texas. These flights simply brought aliens that would’ve been released in San Diego over to Texas,” Heitke said. “Each flight costs approximately $150,000. This was the administration’s way of trying to quiet the border-wide crisis.”

The Biden-Harris administration’s policy of dumping staggering numbers of foreign nationals into small town America is not a new development. The most notable example is Springfield, Ohio, which has garnered nationwide attention over the influx of more than 20,000 Haitian nationals into its communities due to the administration’s destructive immigration policies.

The ongoing invasion would assuredly continue should Harris win the presidency this November. Contrary to claims from her campaign aides, America’s “border czar” is a staunch proponent of open border policies.

After becoming a U.S. senator in 2017, for example, she claimed a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is a “stupid use of money” and pledged to “block any funding for it.” Two years later, she referred to Trump’s wall proposal as a “medieval vanity project” and predicted it wouldn’t stop “transnational gangs” from crossing the border.

In a 2020 Facebook post, Harris reiterated her belief that the wall “is a complete waste of taxpayer money and won’t make us any safer.” In recent years, she’s supported abolishing ICE and detention centers housing illegal aliens, advocated providing mass amnesty to illegals, and compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan.

During a Wednesday speech, the vice president also attacked Donald Trump for his pledge to deport the millions of foreign nationals who have illegally entered the U.S. under her watch.

An estimated 10 million illegal aliens have unlawfully entered the United States since Biden and Harris took office in January 2021, according to the Washington Examiner.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood