A whistleblower complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general accuses Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott of trying to use the agency’s internal watchdog to target senior officials and potentially set what the complaint describes as a “perjury trap” for a top Border Patrol leader tied to a Chicago immigration enforcement case.
The complaint, submitted Feb. 25 by a career employee working inside the commissioner’s office, alleges Scott pushed investigators to open internal cases without documented allegations and sought to steer the Office of Professional Responsibility, the CBP unit responsible for investigating misconduct inside the agency. The allegations were first reported by The Washington Examiner, which reviewed the complaint and internal communications tied to the dispute.
According to the complaint, tensions inside CBP rose after leadership changes and disagreements over immigration enforcement operations. The whistleblower says Scott pressed the Office of Professional Responsibility to open investigations into several senior officials even though investigators had no formal complaints or written allegations to support the cases.
“Scott has abused his position as Commissioner by attempting to leverage the Office of Professional Responsibility to initiate investigations against senior CBP personnel without documented allegations or proper justification. This conduct creates an ethical conundrum for OPR leadership and undermines the office’s role as an independent investigative body.”
The complaint says investigators and agency attorneys questioned whether opening cases without documented allegations would violate investigative procedures. When officials asked for written authorization to conduct the investigations, the whistleblower says Scott refused.
“[Scott] stated he did not want to put things in writing and that he had other ways to ‘get them.’”
The most serious allegation centers on Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino and litigation tied to immigration enforcement operations in Chicago. The case involved a lawsuit challenging federal enforcement activity and a temporary restraining order governing the use of body cameras during those operations.
Bovino had already submitted sworn testimony stating the agency complied with the order. According to the complaint, Scott pushed internal affairs officials to issue a reprimand tied to alleged violations of that order.
“The issuance of a reprimand alleging noncompliance with the court’s order would have created the appearance that Chief Bovino’s sworn declaration was inaccurate and could have exposed him to allegations of perjury or contempt of court.”
The complaint says that agency lawyers later said the restraining order had not been violated and that the reprimand had never been issued.
The document also says that, while CBP personnel matters were being discussed, Scott discussed potential investigations with officials via the encrypted messaging app Signal rather than official government systems.
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The whistleblower argues that using encrypted messaging platforms outside official channels could make it harder to preserve records related to internal investigations.
The dispute described in the complaint also coincided with turmoil inside the Office of Professional Responsibility. The whistleblower says Jennifer Barreras-Rawls, who took over the office in January 2026, resigned about a month later after refusing to open investigations without documented allegations.
“Barreras-Rawls did not feel that she had the support she needed from Commissioner Scott in addressing the deep-seated culture of division, corruption, and mandatory fealty to Commissioner Scott.”
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general has not publicly commented on the complaint, and it remains unclear whether a formal investigation has been opened.
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