Senate Confirms Rodney Scott as CBP Commissioner 51–46, Seven Weeks After IACHR Found U.S. Responsible for Hernández Rojas Cover-Up He Supervised

Opening Paragraph

The U.S. Senate confirmed Rodney Scott as the 6th Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection by a 51–46 vote on June 18, 2025, seven weeks after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held the United States responsible for the 2010 killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas and the cover-up that followed — a cover-up Scott supervised as Deputy Chief Patrol Agent of the San Diego Sector. Scott now commands CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), the same successor apparatus to the Critical Incident Teams whose functions he directed during the cover-up.

What Happened / Key Facts

Scott was nominated by Trump for the CBP Commissioner position in December 2024 and sat for confirmation hearings before the Senate Finance Committee (April 30, 2025) and Senate Judiciary/HSGAC in spring 2025. His confirmation vote was 51–46, along party lines, on June 18, 2025 (Senate Vote #321, 119th Congress).

Scott’s pre-confirmation record on CIT cover-up:

• Scott served as Deputy Chief Patrol Agent, San Diego Sector, in May 2010 when Anastasio Hernández Rojas was beaten, tasered, and asphyxiated by approximately a dozen CBP agents while handcuffed
• The San Diego Sector’s Critical Incident Investigative Team (CIIT) operated under Scott’s command; it was on scene 15 hours before SDPD was notified
• Under Scott’s supervision, the CIIT allegedly erased eyewitness cell-phone video, destroyed government surveillance footage, altered documents provided to SDPD, and withheld medical records
• Scott signed an administrative subpoena for Hernández Rojas’s medical records during an active criminal probe — an action attorneys for the family characterized as evidence tampering
• Former CBP Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Wong testified publicly: “This was not an investigation, it was a cover-up — one Mr. Scott supervised.”

IACHR ruling (April 28, 2025 — seven weeks before Scott’s confirmation): The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in Family Members of Anastasio Hernández Rojas v. United States, held the United States responsible for the killing, finding CBP agents tortured Hernández Rojas, used excessive force while he was restrained, discriminated against him, conducted a “biased and incomplete investigation,” and denied his family justice across 15 years of proceedings. The decision was publicly announced May 7, 2025.

Senator Ron Wyden opposed the nomination on the basis of the IACHR ruling and the documentary evidence of Scott’s cover-up role.

Post-confirmation: Scott’s February 12, 2026 Senate HSGAC testimony stated that the investigation of the Alex Pretti killing (January 24, 2026, Minneapolis) was being conducted by “FBI, ICE and CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility,” with CBP “involved with the collection and preservation of evidence.” Per whistleblower Jenn Budd’s characterization (March 4, 2026), this constituted Scott admitting that former CIT agents, now in OPR, were conducting the Pretti investigation.

Why This Event Matters

Scott’s confirmation is the institutional culmination of the CIT-to-OPR personnel rotation: the command-level figure who supervised the cover-up apparatus is now the command-level figure who oversees its successor. The 51–46 vote confirms the rotation at the executive-confirmation level, not merely the administrative transfer level.

The structural argument: disbanding the CITs in May 2022 without replacing the command culture that directed them produces the same outcome under new organizational headings. Scott’s confirmation to lead CBP, seven weeks after an international human rights body found the United States responsible for exactly the cover-up he supervised, demonstrates that the institutional protection of cover-up culture operates through the normal confirmation process, not despite it.

Broader Context

The Hernández Rojas case (May 28, 2010) is the canonical worked example of CIT cover-up operations — the first case where documentary evidence (HBO documentary Critical Incident, December 2025; KPBS reporting; IACHR proceedings) established the CIIT’s conduct in sufficient detail for institutional accountability arguments. Scott’s role connected the 2010 case to current CBP leadership before his confirmation; his actual confirmation connects it to the active Pretti investigation cover-up architecture.

The GAO-24-106148 (May 2024) finding — that former CIT members were reassigned to Evidence Collection Teams and Management Inquiry Teams operating under sector-chief direction, with OPR not fully independent and more than half of new OPR hires from Border Patrol — provides the structural frame within which Scott’s confirmation represents the personnel culmination: the cover-up culture is not only preserved at the agent level but elevated to the command level.

Research Gaps

• Full text of Scott’s February 12, 2026 HSGAC testimony (CBP.gov returning 403; Senate archives may have accessible version)
• Senate Finance Committee hearing transcript (April 30, 2025) — Scott’s responses to IACHR ruling and cover-up allegations
• Whether any senator who voted to confirm specifically addressed the IACHR ruling in floor remarks

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• 2026-01-24–border-patrol-kills-alex-pretti-legal-observer-minneapolis