Donald Trump Plans Pay Rise for Border Agents, Union Backs Him

Former President Donald Trump said at a rally in Arizona on Sunday that if elected, he would urge Congress to increase the salaries of Customs and Border Protection agents and hire thousands of new agents.
The policy would include hiring 10,000 new agents, a 10 percent raise for existing agents and $10,000 retention and signing bonuses.
Immigration policy and border security are key issues in the swing state, with three weeks until Election Day. Polls have shown that when it comes to immigration, voters trust Trump more than Vice President Kamala Harris.
The former president said of the proposal during the campaign rally in Prescott Valley’s Findlay Toyota Center: “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 announced the policy after members of the Border Patrol union joined him onstage during his campaign rally in the critical battleground state of Arizona.
“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,” said Paul Perez, the union’s president.
Earlier this year, the union endorsed a bipartisan border security bill that the former president opposed.
Trump pressured Republican lawmakers to kill the bill, which he described as “horrendous.” The legislation would have funded the hiring of 1,500 additional Customs and Border Protection agents and another 1,600 asylum officers to address the backlog.
Senate Republicans voted to block the bill following Trump’s comments, allowing him to keep border and immigration issues at the center of his campaign to return to the White House.
Harris has pledged to revive the border bill that Trump opposed, and Democrats have criticized the former president’s announcement on policy plans to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
Matt Corridoni, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, said in a statement: “Trump told us Mexico would pay for his failed border wall. That was a lie. Then he made taxpayers pay for his failed border wall.
“Trump doesn’t care about solving problems; he only wants to run on one. That’s why he killed the bipartisan border bill that would’ve secured the border, despite the fact that it was endorsed by the Border Patrol.
“There’s only one candidate focused on tackling issues for the American people, has taken on transnational gangs, and is focused on keeping our communities safe—Vice President Kamala Harris.”