The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents 16,500 Border Patrol agents, issued a press release on March 30 announcing that the NBPC is endorsing Donald Trump for president. The union noted in its release that it has had a longstanding practice of not endorsing presidential candidates in the primaries, and that the Trump endorsement is its first-ever endorsement in a presidential primary.
However, notes a statement on the union’s website, “The NBPC is restricted by federal regulations from making political contributions to political parties or candidates.”
The NBPC’s leaders, including Brandon Judd, the union’s president; Kenneth Palinkas, its past president; Shawn Moran; the union’s vice president, and Chris Cabrera, a spokesperson for the NBPC’s Rio Grande Valley council, have all been vocal in criticizing the Obama administration’s lack of enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws.
In written testimony provided to the House Judiciary Committee in March, Judd charged that the Obama administration has “no intention of deporting” many of the illegal immigrants caught trying to cross our border illegally and has ordered that they be released so they don’t clog up the immigration courts. The NBPC’s leader said that the orders are a new “catch and release” policy, which “amounts to amnesty” because it means many illegal immigrants are never asked to leave the country.
Speaking on the Hannity program on the Fox News Channel on March 30 (the day that the union endorsed Trump) NBPC’s vice president Moran was critical of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske:
I think the American people don’t understand the full breadth of this problem. We have a president who has appointed a commissioner of Customs and Border Protection who is more political than ever, and they have carved out our immigration laws, by policy, where Border Patrol agents are basically letting everyone we catch out the door. So, that’s not border security. We need a president who understands the problem, who is going to put the right political appointees in there, and who is going to let Border Patrol agents go out and enforce the law.
During the course of his campaign and the Republican debates, Trump has been very strong on the issue of preventing illegal immigration and securing our borders and is best known for his proposal to build a wall across our southern border and, furthermore, to make Mexico pay for the wall. He has also proposed tripling the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, implementing a nationwide e-verify system to confirm the eligibility of job applicants for legal employment, the mandatory deportation of all criminal aliens, the mandatory detention of illegal aliens apprehended crossing the border prior to their deportation, and other strict ant-illegal immigration measures.
While the practicality of some of Trump’s proposals, especially his plan to build the massive border wall, have been debated extensively — include during the GOP primary debates — his outspokenness on the matter of illegal immigration has undoubtedly endeared him to the beleaguered Border Patrol agents, whose efforts to secure the border have often received little support from the Obama administration.
The NBPC press release stated part of the reason for its endorsement of Trump:
Mr. Trump will take on special interests and embrace the ideas of rank-and-file Border Patrol agents rather than listening to the management yes-men who say whatever they are programmed to say. This is a refreshing change that we have not seen before — and may never see again.
Mr. Trump is correct when he says immigration wouldn’t be at the forefront of this presidential campaign if months ago he hadn’t made some bold and necessary statements. And when the withering media storm ensued he did not back down one iota. That tells you the measure of a man. When the so-called experts said he was too brash and outspoken, and that he would fade away, they were proven wrong. We are confident they will be proven wrong again in November when he becomes President of the United States.
There is no greater physical or economic threat to Americans today than our open border.
Almost immediately after the NBPC issued its endorsement of Trump, the anti-deportation group #Not1More posted an online petition calling for the AFL-CIO to expel the union. The #Not1More petition employed melodramatic language that seems typical of those on the liberal-left side of the “immigration reform” issue:By endorsing Trump, Border Patrol endorses a racist, xenophobic and misogynist campaign that advocates mass deportation, torture, state-sanctioned discrimination against Muslims, subordination of women, and more broadly undermines the values and goals of the labor movement.
A report in NBC News Latino stated that neither the AFL-CIO nor the NBPC could be reached for comment on the anti-deportation group’s petition.
The NBPC endorsement is the second one that could be attributed primarily to Trump’s outspoken stand on illegal immigration. The other came from Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has been perhaps the most vocal member of Congress when it come to criticizing the Obama administration’s poor record on enforcing our immigration laws and securing our borders.
Photo: AP Images
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Border Patrol: Obama Has “No Intention” of Deporting Illegals
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Border Patrol Agents Ordered to Stand Down in Enforcing Immigration Laws
Obama’s Double Migration “Surge”: Muslim “Refugees” and Unaccompanied Children
National Border Patrol Council: “Law Enforcement? What’s That?”
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