WASHINGTON, DC – Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller announced Thursday that Raúl Ortiz will be the new head of the Border Patrol.
The appointment of Ortiz, a native of Del Rio, Texas, and former deputy chief of the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, was announced a day after he Rodney S. Scott resigned from office following reports that Bien’s administration requested his resignation.
“I personally thank Rodney S. Scott for his 29 years of service with the Border Patrol and for his 17 months of service as chief of the United States Border Patrol,” Miller said in a statement. “He has dedicated his career to public service and I am grateful for the great experience and knowledge he has brought to the United States Customs and Border Protection,” added the Acting Commissioner.
Ortiz becomes the 25th chief of this entity and has served the Border Patrol for more than 29 years.
Ortiz’s career with the Border Patrol began when he entered service in May 1991, in the San Diego Sector, as a member of the Class 247 Academy.
From 2000 to 2005, he served as assistant patrol agent in charge and patrol agent in charge of the Comstock station, and as patrol agent in charge of the Del Rio station. In 2005, he was promoted to assistant chief of staff. the Border Patrol in the Del Río Sector.
From 2009 to 2010, Deputy Chief Ortiz served as director of the Border Management Task Force in Kabul, Afghanistan; and in 2010, he served as Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan for the US Department of Homeland Security.
Then in 2011, he was promoted to the position of DHS Senior Service Senior Executive in Kabul and held that position until his selection as Deputy Chief of Operations at Border Patrol Headquarters in Washington, DC.
In 2013, Deputy Chief Ortiz was appointed Deputy Chief of Patrol for the Rio Grande Valley Sector of the Border Patrol. In 2019, he became Chief Patrol Agent of the Del Rio Sector and in 2020 he was promoted to Deputy Chief of the United States Border Patrol.
“Chief Ortiz’s passion for his work, colleagues and agents is contagious. I am confident that he will lead with “Honor First,” securing our borders and humanely enforcing the laws of this nation,” said Miller.