Border Protection Commissioner Rodney S. Scott listens as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a press conference in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
One of President Donald Trump's top border security officials was reportedly denied access to Minneapolis during the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement surge, with the Washington Examiner reporting that other top officials are working to force him out over ethical disagreements on the president's deportation plans.
Rodney Scott is Trump's U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner. According to the Examiner's Monday report, conflicts with Scott have led Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her close ally, special Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employee Corey Lewandowski, to mount "an aggressive campaign" to try and make the commissioner "so uncomfortable at work that he would resign."
Scott reportedly clashed with the pair over "how to reach the president’s deportation goals and ethical concerns," according to eight anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Some sources have described Noem and Lewandowski's tactics as "evil," and suggested that they could "negatively impact the families of senior CBP staff."
In a series of posts to X, reporter Anne Giaterelli expanded on her piece for Examiner, stating that Scott had been blocked from traveling to Minneapolis amid DHS' ongoing "Operation Metro Surge," a historically large immigration enforcement drive that has been described as "terrorizing" the Twin Cities area and resulted in two American citizens being killed by federal agents.
"The one person not in Minneapolis today or since the very beginning of this operation is Rodney Scott, the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol. I’m told DHS has barred Scott from traveling to Minneapolis," Giaterelli wrote, later adding, "And yes, Rodney Scott has requested to travel to Minneapolis. He was told no."
Noem and Lewandowski reportedly view Scott as a hindrance to the execution of Trump's immigration agenda, which calls for a mass deportation of at least 1,000 undocumented immigrants. Scott has reportedly bristled at some of the tactics employed.
"[Scott] asks questions or challenges them when they make decisions that they may not have knowledge of, or should I say, have no experience with," one source told the examiner, later adding, "The most evil was when they attacked other people in retaliation to get to [Scott]. Corey Lewandowski said that he wanted to make it as tough on these people as possible, their families, their children, everybody.”
"Noem and Lewandowski see people like Rodney Scott, Tom Homan, and Todd Lyons as threats because they carry institutional credibility that doesn’t depend on proximity to power or press," another source told the outlet.