Former President Donald Trump said Sunday that if elected he would ask Congress to pass legislation that would increase the number of Border Patrol agents — just months after he defeated a bipartisan measure that included a staff increase.
The proposal includes hiring 10,000 new agents and a 10% raise for existing agents, as well as $10,000 for retention and signing bonuses, a senior Trump adviser said.
“I will immediately ask Congress to approve a 10% increase,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona. “We have a huge shortage because they have not been treated properly.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
Trump this year opposed a bipartisan measure that was the most aggressive border security bill in decades, one that would have imposed measures aimed at reducing the number of border crossings and tightening asylum rules. The legislation, which followed months of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans and the Biden administration, would also have funded the hiring of 1,500 additional Customs and Border Protection agents and another 1,600 asylum officers.
Senate Republicans ultimately voted to block the bill after Trump pressured congressional Republicans to block any measure that wasn’t “perfect.” That also allowed him to make the border and immigration the basis of his bid to return to the White House.
Harris campaign spokesman Matt Corridoni said in a statement on Sunday that Trump was not interested in “solving problems, but in addressing them.”
“That’s why he killed the bipartisan border bill that would have secured the border, despite the fact that it was passed by the Border Patrol,” Corridoni said in a statement. “There is only one candidate who is focused on addressing issues for the American people, taking on transnational gangs and keeping our communities safe: Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Asked why Trump is now proposing to hire more agents after undermining the bipartisan measure, campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday that he “opposed the bill because it was an amnesty bill that would prevent the illegal entry of thousands of illegal immigrants.” would have accelerated. into the country every week.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who has said she would sign the bipartisan bill if it landed on her desk as president, has tried to portray herself as tough on migration, making a trip to the border in late September and to support stricter restrictions. about getting asylum.
Trump announced his plan to strengthen border security shortly after members of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for Border Patrol agents and staff, joined him on stage to voice their support for him.
“On behalf of the 16,000 men and women represented by the National Border Patrol Council, we strongly support and support Donald J. Trump as President of the United States,” Paul Perez, the union’s president, said at the meeting.
The same union, under a different president, supported the bipartisan bill that Trump helped block. It also supported Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and 2020.
Trump has stepped up his anti-immigration rhetoric at recent rallies. Last week, he called for the death penalty for all migrants who kill U.S. citizens and announced a plan he called “Operation Aurora,” which would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport gang members.
In an NBC News poll released Sunday that showed Harris and Trump at an impasse, respondents ranked immigration and border security as the second issue they considered so important that they would vote for or against a candidate on that basis alone .
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
