The 16,000 members of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing border patrol agents, endorsed Donald Trump on Tuesday.
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.
— Border Patrol Union - NBPC (@BPUnion) October 14, 2024
Paul Perez, President of the National Border Patrol Council, absolutely roasted Kamala Harris when Trump called him on stage in Arizona.
🚨 #BREAKING: The National Border Patrol Council, which represents THOUSANDS of border agents, just endorsed President Trump
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 13, 2024
This is HUGE! 🔥
And they roasted Kamala in the process:
“If we allow Border Czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great… pic.twitter.com/ZEppviIfOz
Related: Trump Gets the Most Important Endorsement of the 2024 Campaign
That endorsement comes as the border patrol is in serious crisis. And many of the frontline border patrol agents who represent America's first line of defense against drugs, human trafficking, and other illegal activity have had enough from the Biden-Harris administration.
The Customs and Border Protection has lost more than 4,000 personnel since October 2020, and twice as many have chosen early retirement, according to the Washington Examiner.
“We will have another exodus just because we will have a bunch of 20-year agents saying peace out,” one agent told the New York Post.
“Under this administration, they’ve done everything they could to make our job as inefficient as possible. They can’t outwardly tell us not to do our job, but when you’re watching criminals come in and get released it sucks,” said another agent.
The tanking morale led the agency to hire its first suicidologist to help combat the surging suicide rate among Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol.
In 2022, the agency recorded a record 15 suicides.
“The morale has never been as low in the Border Patrol, but under the Biden-Harris administration and her current ads, acting like she’s pro-border security is just putting salt on an already gaping wound for the morale of border Border Patrol agents and law enforcement,” former Yuma Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem previously told The Post.
“Kamala Harris has been bad for morale, for not only law enforcement around the country but also for our border security personnel.”
The situation is intolerable. At least 30% of border patrol cameras in the main surveillance system are broken, according to a memo that NBC News obtained.
"The nationwide issue is having significant impacts on [Border Patrol] operations,” reads a Border Patrol memo." About 150 of the 500 cameras on the border are inoperable, according to the memo.
The Border Patrol in Laredo told its members that it “shares your concerns that inoperable camera towers along the border are causing serious officer safety and border security concerns.”
“We hope this issue is resolved soon as the problem has been ongoing for quite some time!” the union added. “The American taxpayer has made significant investments in technology along the border, and they expect that this technology is operational.”
For some ludicrous reason, the agency responsible for maintaining the cameras at the border is the Federal Aviation Administration. According to NBC, the FAA "has had internal problems meeting the needs of the Border Patrol." The memo doesn't explain what those problems are, but we can guess that it's some kind of silly agency turf war.
The FAA declined to comment to NBC on the camera issue.
In 2022, there were 15 suicides among Border Patrol agents. The agency has hired its first suicidologist to help deal with the mental health crisis in the agency that has led to an increasing suicide rate among Customs and Border Protection.
And we wonder why there's a crisis at the border.
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