During a rally in Arizona on Sunday, former President Donald J. Trump omitted an important element when pitching his proposal to employ 10,000 extra border patrol personnel.
He did not specify where the legions of additional agents would come from.
Given its lengthy history of recruitment issues, the US Border Patrol would take years, if ever, to increase personnel to that level.
However, that was only one of numerous harsh actions he promised would be used to safeguard the border if elected. He promised major deportations, but it’s uncertain if he has the resources to pick up millions of immigrants. He advocated allocating some of the military’s budget to border protection, but did not explain how he would convince the judges to approve it.
Mr. Trump’s intentions, as detailed on Sunday, were the latest reminder that when it comes to the former president’s vision for border security, bombastic hyperbole frequently takes precedence over actual solutions.
Many politicians declare lofty, if impossible, plans on the campaign path to inspire their base but provide few details about how they will be implemented. However, Mr. Trump has concentrated most of his campaign on similar plans, proposing a bewildering array of tax reductions without detailing how he intends to pay for them and promising a fast end to hostilities in Ukraine and Gaza while providing scant information on how.
He is repeating that strategy as he attacks Vice President Kamala Harris on illegal border crossings, which reached record levels during the Biden administration.
Mr. Trump has attempted to blame her for the millions of migrant crossings that have occurred in recent years, despite the fact that President Biden appointed her a post that did not include overseeing border policies. Ms. Harris was in charge of combating poverty and corruption in Central America in order to deter migrants from crossing the border into the US.
“They’re destroying our country,” Mr. Trump remarked on Sunday about the Biden administration’s immigration policy. He claimed Ms. Harris had “ruined the jobs of a lot of these agents.”
However, Mr. Trump’s announced border security measures appear to be more focused on tough-sounding policies aimed at instilling anger and fear about immigration than on sweating out the details of effective solutions.
For example, consider Mr. Trump’s announcement of 10,000 new Border Patrol agents. While the idea is strong and broad, like is most of Mr. Trump’s immigration program, it will encounter enormous operational hurdles.
“We were about 1,200 down when I was there, and we still had a great deal of difficulty filling the existing slots,” said Gil Kerlikowske, Customs and Border Protection commissioner under the Obama administration. “The 10,000 would be really a difficult number.”
The agency, which has over 19,000 agents, has struggled to attract officers in recent years due to morale difficulties, the pandemic, and congressional gridlock, which has made financing unpredictable, according to the Government Accountability Office. Mr. Trump also stated that he will request that Congress immediately approve a 10% raise for agents, as well as a $10,000 retention and signing incentive.
The Trump team declined to answer concerns about how it would carry out its pledge to hire thousands of spies.