Former President Donald Trump was endorsed by the official Border Patrol union on Sunday during a rally in Arizona as he rolled out a plan to hire thousands of additional agents and increase their pay.
The National Border Patrol Council, which represents around 16,000 members, announced its backing of Trump as he spoke at a campaign rally in Prescott Valley on Sunday afternoon. The Border Patrol union has supported each of Trump’s three campaigns for the White House, saying that his policies would help end the illegal immigration crisis.
During the rally, National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris over her role in the Biden administration’s immigration policy.
“If we allow Border Czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country, is going to go to hell. 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,” he said. “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.”
”This November we have a choice to make: continue the chaos, allow the criminal cartels to control the border, to allow drugs and fentanyl across our country or put an end to it once and for all,” he added.
Trump said he was honored to receive the endorsement, saying they were heroes for protecting the border.
“I will always stand with the incredible men and women of Border Patrol,” he said. “This is a group that really needs spirit because they’re protecting us, they’re protecting our lives, they’re protecting our country.”
If elected, Trump said he would hire 10,000 new Border Patrol agents, ask Congress to give a 10% raise to all agents, and offer a $10,000 retention and signing bonus.
Earlier in the rally, which around 7,000 people attended, Trump said that he believed the border was the most important issue of the election.
“What they’ve done to us on the border can never be forgiven,” he said. “They’re coming from prisons and jails, insane asylums, mental institutions, from Venezuela, from the Congo, all over. And she’s resettled them into your communities to prey upon innocent American people. If Kamala gets four more years, the entire country will be turned into a migrant camp, and that’s what happening.”
Polls show a close race between Trump and Harris in Arizona, with the former president having a 1.4% lead, according to an average of 50 polls.
