PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. — Former President Donald Trump on Sunday proposed hiring 10,000 more Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus. he diverted the bilateral bill including funding for more border workers earlier this year.
Trump made his pledge at a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, 260 miles north of the state’s Mexican border. He accepted the endorsement of the agents’ union, the National Border Patrol Council, which is a Trump backer that supported him in the previous two campaigns.
Trump has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign and blamed it on Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival. record rise in unauthorized crossings US-Mexico border. He frequently denounces people who enter the US illegally as invaders and criminals, and has vowed to launch the largest deportation operation in American history if re-elected president.
Earlier this year he defied the union when he persuaded Republicans to kill a bipartisan immigration bill which had additional frontier resources. According to the White House, the bill would fund 1,500 employees for US Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol.
Trump said at the time that he did not want to hand Democrats a political victory on his key issue. At the rally, Trump called the legislation “a terrible bill.”
Trump and his allies call Harris the “border czar” despite the fact that it is common he never had that title. President Joe Biden he asked Harris to examine the “causes” of Central American migration early in his administration.
“If we let Border Czar Harris win this election, every city, every community in this great country will go to hell,” union president Paul Perez said as he stood next to Trump on stage with a group of agents.
Harris campaign spokesman Matt Corridoni noted Trump’s move against the border bill and that Mexico would pay for his signature border wall, which was ultimately funded by the US government.
“Trump doesn’t care about solving problems, he just wants to run with one,” Corridoni said in a statement.
Trump has vowed to complete the border wall if he returns to the White House. It trumpets the relatively low number of border crossings during Biden’s first three years, but today they are crossings. back down To levels equal to or below those seen during most of Trump’s tenure.
Trump’s tenure was also marked by a fight to crack down on illegal crossings before the COVID-19 pandemic closed international borders. Under his administration, Border Patrol agents separated immigrant children from parents, one of the enforcement programs the Trump administration implemented to target illegal immigration.
On Sunday, Trump said Border Patrol agents deserved higher pay and bonuses and lamented that Biden and Harris had neglected the border.
