U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott has withdrawn his agency from a 2022 Department of Homeland Security delegation that granted CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials authority to solicit, accept and distribute private gifts for immigrants held in federal custody.
The withdrawal, detailed in a memo obtained by Fox News, marks a reversal of a policy that had operated with minimal public attention. The original delegation order was signed May 3, 2022, by then-Deputy Homeland Security Secretary John K. Tien during the Biden administration. It explicitly authorized the CBP commissioner and ICE director to "solicit, accept and use gifts related to the care of illegal immigrants held in the agencies' custody."
In his memo, Scott cited a "significant decrease in encounters and apprehensions" at the border as justification for the withdrawal. CBP will "continue to provide care for aliens in our custody through our normal appropriations," he wrote.
Scott's memo revealed that CBP officials "recently discovered" the directive and moved to rescind participation, suggesting the policy had been operating with minimal institutional awareness or systematic review.
Key details remain unclear from available public records. There is no documentation indicating whether CBP and ICE actively solicited private donations, from whom, or in what amounts. It's unknown whether there were audit trails, approval processes or recipient tracking mechanisms. The original 2022 order does not appear to have generated significant public disclosure or congressional notification when issued.
CBP confirmed the withdrawal applies solely to CBP. Scott's memo does not address whether ICE continues operating under the original delegation, leaving questions about whether one agency continues with authority the other has formally renounced.
The timing of the discovery warrants examination. The delegation has been in effect for nearly two years. If the discovery was part of a systematic policy audit, it raises questions about what other dormant delegations might exist across the federal immigration apparatus.
Apprehensions and encounters at the southern border have declined significantly in recent months, making the policy reversal logically consistent with current conditions. However, the lack of public discourse around a policy granting federal officials authority to accept private gifts remains noteworthy.
The episode highlights a recurring tension in federal administration: the gap between the formal delegation of authority and public knowledge of how that authority is exercised. When such gaps persist for years before being noticed by the agencies involved, it suggests that the infrastructure for institutional self-review may warrant examination.
