Former President Donald Trump revealed a fresh plan on Sunday to boost the number of US Border Patrol agents while retaining existing talent, as he emphasizes immigration and the border in his closing address against Vice President Kamala Harris.
At a campaign rally in battleground Arizona, where he spent much of his speech inciting anxieties about undocumented immigrants, the former president pledged to hire 10,000 additional US agents, offer a 10% wage increase, and a $10,000 retention and signing bonus.
“This will ensure that we can hire and retain Border Patrol agents as needed. And we can bring in a lot of new ones, really outstanding ones,” he told his supporters gathered at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley. He suggested that Border Patrol agents have “good genetics” despite previously saying that migrants who commit murder have “bad genes” in another example of his degrading comments toward those in the country illegally.
The former president said he will ask Congress to “immediately” approve the 10% raise for all agents.
However, Trump vetoed a bipartisan border bill in Congress earlier this year that would have allowed for additional Border Patrol agents and had the support of the National Border Patrol Council. The Harris campaign and Democrats have regularly used Trump’s efforts to derail the agreement in attacking the previous president on border security. The same organization that represents US Border Patrol agents officially endorsed Trump on Sunday, after previously supporting him.
On Sunday, the Harris campaign blasted Trump for what it called “his long record of failed leadership and broken promises.”
“Donald Trump promised us Mexico would pay for his disastrous border wall. It was a lie. Then he forced taxpayers to pay for his failed border wall. Trump isn’t interested in addressing problems; he just wants to run on one,” Harris campaign spokesman Matt Corridoni said in a statement. “That’s why he killed the bipartisan border bill that would’ve secured the border, despite the fact though it was endorsed by the Border Patrol.”
Harris made her first visit to the US border as a presidential candidate in late September, and in last week’s Univision town hall, she accused Trump of blocking the bipartisan border security plan, claiming he wanted to “run on a problem.”
According to AWN, Trump is campaigning as if sealing the border and deporting individuals who have illegally crossed it are the country’s top priority. Recent polls, however, have consistently shown that the economy is the most important issue to the majority of voters. In a recent AWN poll done by SSRS, more than four in ten prospective voters stated the economy was the most significant topic when selecting a candidate to lead the country. Only 12% of people stated immigration was the most important to them.