MEG KINNARD and NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Updated Sun, October 13, 202
PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Sunday proposed hiring 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, after he derailed a bipartisan bill earlier this year that included funding for more border personnel.
Trump made his pledge during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, roughly 260 miles north of the state's border with Mexico. He accepted an endorsement from the agents’ union, the National Border Patrol Council, which is a longtime Trump backer that endorsed him during his prior two campaigns.
Trump has made illegal immigration the focus of his campaign and blamed Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, for a record spike in unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. He frequently denounces people entering the U.S. illegally as invaders and criminals, and he has vowed to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if he is elected president again.
He did defy the union earlier this year when he convinced Republicans to kill a bipartisan immigration bill that contained additional border resources. According to the White House, the bill would have funded 1,500 personnel at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol.
Trump at the time said he did not want to give Democrats a political victory on his key issue. At the rally, Trump contended the legislation was “a horrible bill.”
Trump and his allies routinely call Harris the “border czar,” even though she's never had that title. President Joe Biden did ask Harris early in his administration to study the “root causes” of migration from Central America.
“If we allow Border Czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country is going to go to hell,” union president Paul Perez said as he stood next to Trump on stage with a group of agents.
Matt Corridoni, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, noted Trump’s move against the border bill and his vows that Mexico would pay for his signature border wall, which ultimately was funded by the U.S. government.
“Trump doesn’t care about solving problems, he only wants to run on one,” Corridoni said in a statement.
Trump has vowed to complete a border wall if he's returned to the White House. He routinely trumpets his comparatively low numbers of border crossings with the much higher ones during Biden's first three years in office, though currently crossings are back down to levels at or below those seen during most of Trump's term.
Trump's term was also marked by a struggle to crack down on illegal crossings before the COVID-19 pandemic led to international border closures. Under his administration, Border Patrol agents separated immigrant children from their parents, one of several enforcement programs the Trump administration implemented to target illegal immigration.
On Sunday, Trump said that Border Patrol agents deserved the higher pay and bonuses and bemoaned how he said Biden and Harris had neglected the border.
Trump Calls for Border Agent Hiring Spree With New Pay Hikes
María Paula Mijares Torres and Stephanie LaiSun, October 13, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Republican nominee Donald Trump called for raises and bonuses for border agents in an attempt to recruit 10,000 new people to secure the US-Mexico border.
Trump said Sunday that, if elected in November, he will call on Congress to pass a 10% pay increase for border patrol agents and approve $10,000 retention and signing bonuses.
“This will ensure that we can hire and keep the border patrol agents that we need to keep, and we can also bring in a lot of new ones, really great ones,” Trump said at a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, a town in a Republican-leaning county where Trump took 64% of the vote in the 2020 presidential race.
Trump’s bid to recruit thousands more border agents comes as he is sharpening his immigration pitch to court voters in swing state that President Joe Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago. Polls show that voters consistently rank Trump higher on border security than his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.
An additional 10,000 agents would represent a roughly 50% increase from the nearly 19,500 employed by the US Customs and Border Protection in fiscal year 2022. Immigration remains a top concern among the state’s voters. Trump has pledged to finish building a border wall and conduct mass deportations of undocumented migrants.
Arizona opened early voting on Oct. 9, kicking off the 2024 choice in a closely contested state that was central to Trump’s false claims of election tampering after the last election. Trump has a 1 percentage point lead in Arizona over Harris, his Democratic opponent, in the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.
Harris, meanwhile, has assailed Trump for his role in killing a bipartisan immigration bill that would have addressed the border crisis, and has said she would sign it into law if it came to her desk. She has said she’d strengthen border security and boost prosecutions of repeat offenders while also providing legal pathways to citizenship for migrants already in the US.
Arizona Campaigning
Trump’s Arizona stop caps his latest tour of western states, which included an unusual trip to Coachella in heavily Democratic California and a roundtable in Las Vegas to meet Latino supporters, including Goya Foods Inc. Chief Executive Officer Robert Unanue.
Harris visited Arizona last week for a rally and a visit with Republicans who don’t support Trump. She pledged to create a bipartisan policy advice council if she’s elected, part of efforts to broaden the Democratic ticket’s appeal among independents and Republicans wary of the former president.
With Trump and Harris vying for Latino votes, Harris defended her record on immigration and health care at a Univision town hall on Oct. 10. Univision also is airing a town hall with Trump on Oct. 16.
Latinos have grown at the second-fastest rate of any major racial and ethnic group in the US electorate since the 2020 presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center survey, which also found an estimated 36.2 million are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020.
A recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll concluded that Harris has the edge among likely Latino voters in Nevada and Arizona, though Trump led among Latino men under age 50.
Arizona’s number of eligible Latino voters has more than doubled since 2000 to an estimated 1.3 million, and they now make up a quarter of the state’s electorate. They also skew significantly younger than the average Arizona voter.
Trump receives unanimous endorsement from Border Patrol Union
Greg Wehner
FOX NEWS
Sun, October 13, 2024
The official union of the U.S. border patrol announced its full support of former President Trump during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona on Sunday.
During the rally, Trump told the crowd that he was "honored to receive… the endorsement" of the union of the entire union of the border patrol agents, the National Border Patrol Council.
"It’s a great honor," Trump said. "They said it was unanimous. Thousands of people."
He then invited Paul Perez, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, onto the stage.
House Committee Ramps Up Pressure To Obtain Important Docs On Harris' Role In Border Crisis
National Border Patrol Council president Paul Perez announced the union's endorsement of former President Trump during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on Oct. 13, 2024.
Perez said he had a message for everyone in the crowd.
"If we allow border czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country is going to go to hell," Perez said. "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. That is Donald J. Trump," he continued. "He has always stood with the men and women who protect this border, who put their lives on the line for the country."
The union president told the crowd they have a choice to make this November.
He said the chaos can continue, and criminal cartels can continue to be allowed to control the border which will allow for drugs and fentanyl to filter into the U.S., or voters can put an end to the chaos.
"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 said.
Border Patrol picks up a group of asylum seekers from an aid camp at the U.S.-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona, on March 13, 2024.
Trump appeared pleased with the endorsement from what he called an "incredible group of people" he will always stand with.
After announcing the endorsement, Trump continued to rally for votes from the people of Arizona, a key swing state on the border.
He made numerous digs toward his opponent, Vice President Harris, and vowed to never allow the U.S. military to become woke.
Trump then told those in attendance to watch a video on a screen behind him.
Sun, October 13, 2024
The official union of the U.S. border patrol announced its full support of former President Trump during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona on Sunday.
During the rally, Trump told the crowd that he was "honored to receive… the endorsement" of the union of the entire union of the border patrol agents, the National Border Patrol Council.
"It’s a great honor," Trump said. "They said it was unanimous. Thousands of people."
He then invited Paul Perez, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, onto the stage.
House Committee Ramps Up Pressure To Obtain Important Docs On Harris' Role In Border Crisis
National Border Patrol Council president Paul Perez announced the union's endorsement of former President Trump during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on Oct. 13, 2024.
Perez said he had a message for everyone in the crowd.
"If we allow border czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country is going to go to hell," Perez said. "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. That is Donald J. Trump," he continued. "He has always stood with the men and women who protect this border, who put their lives on the line for the country."
The union president told the crowd they have a choice to make this November.
He said the chaos can continue, and criminal cartels can continue to be allowed to control the border which will allow for drugs and fentanyl to filter into the U.S., or voters can put an end to the chaos.
"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 said.
Border Patrol picks up a group of asylum seekers from an aid camp at the U.S.-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona, on March 13, 2024.
Trump appeared pleased with the endorsement from what he called an "incredible group of people" he will always stand with.
After announcing the endorsement, Trump continued to rally for votes from the people of Arizona, a key swing state on the border.
He made numerous digs toward his opponent, Vice President Harris, and vowed to never allow the U.S. military to become woke.
Trump then told those in attendance to watch a video on a screen behind him.
Immigrants line up at a remote U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 7, 2023, in Lukeville, Arizona.
The feed featured clips from Stanley Kubrick’s movie, "Full Metal Jacket," which features a brash drill sergeant played by the late actor, R. Lee Ermey.
Ermey’s character was featured shouting at his new soldiers, telling them they will not laugh or cry, before the video took a turn.
"Happy pride. Happy pride month, and actually, let’s declare it a sunny day," the video showed.
Trump also addressed the changing of the names of bases before later telling the crowd his administration will crush violent crime and support police.
Trump will continue to campaign up to election day on Nov. 5.
Trump, Harris Locked In Dead Heat In 7 Battleground States, Poll Finds: ‘Could Not Be Closer’
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
According to a Wall Street Journal poll released last week, there was little separation between Trump and Harris in seven battleground states, which prompted a Democratic pollster to say that the 2024 election "really could not be closer."
The survey of 600 registered voters in each of the states, which was conducted Sept. 28-Oct. 8 with a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points, found that in a head-to-head contest, Trump and Harris are tied in North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Harris leads Trump 48%-46% in Arizona and Georgia, and 49%-47% in Michigan, according to the poll. In Nevada, Trump has his biggest swing state lead of 49%-43%, while he leads Harris in Pennsylvania 47%-46%, the poll also found.
On the issues, voters say they trusted Trump more to handle the economy, inflation and immigration and border security.
They preferred Harris when it comes to housing affordability, abortion, health care and having someone in the Oval Office who cares about you.
Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.
APTOPIX Election 2024 Trump
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with members of the U.S. Border Patrol before speaking at a campaign rally, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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