By Jason Hopkins, The Daily Caller News Foundation | October 14, 2024
The official union of the U.S. Border Patrol announced its endorsement of former President Donald Trump during a rally on Sunday in Arizona.
The National Border Patrol Council, which represents roughly 18,000 Border patrol agents across the country, endorsed Trump during a campaign rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona. The Border Patrol Union endorsed Trump in 2016 — the first time the union had ever endorsed a presidential candidate — and gave him their nod of approval again in 2020.
“If we allow Border Czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country, is going to go to hell,” Paul Perez, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said on Sunday. “The untold millions of people, unvetted, who she has allowed into this country that are committing murders, rapes, robberies, burglaries, and every other crime will continue to put our country in peril.
“Only one man can fix that and that is Donald J. Trump. He has always stood with the men and women who protect this border,” Perez continued. “On behalf of the 16,000 men and women represented by the National Border Patrol Council, we strongly support and endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.”
Perez added that Trump was a man who knows what it’s like to put “his life on the line for what is right,” during his endorsement speech, and heavily criticized what the southern border would look like under a potential Harris administration.
The third consecutive endorsement by the Border Patrol union comes as Trump has continued to make immigration enforcement a hallmark of his campaign. The Republican candidate doubled down on this agenda, with a pledge during his Sunday rally to hire an additional 10,000 Border Patrol agents, immediately green-light a 10% raise for agents and offer them a signing bonus.
More than seven million migrants have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents across the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden-Harris administration, according to latest data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The border crisis that has taken place during the current administration has left Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running neck-and-neck with the former president, with consistently low poll numbers on border issues with voters.
Former Border Patrol leaders who have testified before Congress and spoken to the Daily Caller News Foundation allege that senior members of the Biden-Harris administration actively tried to keep details of the immigration crisis out of sight of the public.
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