During a rally in Arizona on Sunday, former President Donald J. Trump omitted key details as he promoted his proposal to hire 10,000 new workers to protect the U.S.-Mexico border. did.
He did not say where these new corps of agents would come from.
Given years of recruiting struggles, it will take years, if ever, for the U.S. Border Patrol to increase recruitment that much.
But this is just one of several aggressive moves he has said will come to secure the border if elected president. He has promised mass deportations, but it is unclear whether the funds will be used to round up millions of immigrants. He proposed devoting some of the military’s budget to border security, but did not say how he would get the courts to approve it.
Mr. Trump’s plan outlined Sunday became the latest reminder that when it comes to the former president’s vision for border security, hyperbolic rhetoric often wins out over substantive solutions. .
Many politicians announce unrealistic but ambitious policies during election campaigns in order to energize their base with little detail on how to implement them. But Mr. Trump focused much of his campaign on these proposals, proposing an astonishing series of tax cuts without discussing how he would pay for them, and promising an immediate end to the conflict in Ukraine and Gaza. However, he provided few details on how to do so.
He is using that strategy again to attack Vice President Kamala Harris over the issue of illegal border crossings, which have risen to record levels under the Biden administration.
Trump tried to blame her for millions of migrant arrivals in recent years, even though President Biden assigned her a role without responsibility for managing policies specific to the U.S.-Mexico border. . Rather, Ms. Harris was charged with tackling poverty and corruption in Central America in order to prevent immigrants from heading north to the United States.
“They’re destroying our country,” Trump said Sunday of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. He said Harris had “ruined the work of many investigators.”
But Trump’s own announced plan to address border security has focused less on detailing workable solutions and more on hard-line policies aimed at exploiting anger and fear about immigrants. Sometimes it seems like there is.
A case in point is Trump’s declaration to add 10,000 new Border Patrol agents. Like much of Mr. Trump’s immigration policy, this proposal is aggressive and far-reaching, but it will face extraordinary challenges in implementation.
“We were down about 1,200 people when I was there, but it was still very difficult to fill existing slots,” said Gil Kerlikowske, who served as Customs and Border Protection chief during the Obama administration. . “10,000 would be a really difficult number.”
The agency, which has more than 19,000 employees, has struggled to hire staff in recent years due to morale issues, the pandemic and a dysfunctional Congress that have made funding unpredictable, according to the Comptroller’s Office. Trump also said he would ask Congress to immediately approve a 10% pay raise for agents and a $10,000 retention and signing bonus.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about how it would implement its plan to hire thousands of staffers.
Mr. Trump took a tougher stance, saying he would move forward with the historic deportation operation. He proposes invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of drug cartels and criminal organizations without due process.
The law allows for the immediate deportation of people from countries that are at war with the United States, have invaded the United States, or have engaged in “predatory aggression.” The Supreme Court has upheld past applications of the law, but it is unclear whether the justices will allow the president to extend the law to drug cartel activity. The text of the law requires a link to the actions of foreign governments.
Still, Trump has raised concerns about roundups, saying they could be made possible by transferring other federal employees or deputing local law enforcement to assist in Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. . However, some cities have refused to cooperate with ICE, fearing that such cooperation could lead to deportation for misdemeanors.
The last time Trump was in the White House, a thorough deportation campaign failed. Part of the reason is that ICE lacks sufficient personnel and detention capacity to carry out such operations.
Now, Trump has said he will use military funds to build huge detention facilities for such deportation missions. But a similar strategy to use Pentagon funds to build a border wall during his previous tenure was blocked by a court in 2020.
Still, the rise of these campaigns isn’t necessarily about passing the logistics test. Their purpose is to gain support from voters. Trump used a similar strategy during his 2016 presidential campaign, repeatedly promising to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it. In the end, American taxpayers ended up paying for it.
Despite the logistical, legal and financial challenges Trump faces in implementing his immigration proposal, polls show more voters say Trump is in charge of border issues than Biden or Harris. I trust Mr.
Harris’ campaign has sought to reduce that number by highlighting the vice president’s record as a border state prosecutor and challenging the legitimacy of Trump’s proposals.
“Trump is not interested in solving problems. He just wants to work on one thing,” said Matt Corridoni, a spokesman for the Harris campaign.
Democrats note that Trump, who proposed a hiring surge for Border Patrol agents on Sunday, helped block an effort earlier this year to hire 1,500 employees at the Border Patrol’s parent agency.
The Senate border bill, negotiated by the White House, Democrats and Senate Republicans, would have provided funding to hire more border agents and thousands of asylum workers.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Trump opposed the bill because it would “facilitate the entry of thousands of illegal immigrants every week.”
In fact, the package would tighten initial asylum checks for immigrants and make it much more difficult for them to stay in the country. It is supported by the National Border Patrol Council, the border patrol agents’ union, which endorsed Trump at a rally on Sunday.
But Republicans, taking a cue from Mr. Trump, usurped the bill to prevent Democrats from securing an election-year victory. Harris said she plans to sign the bill after she is elected if it is reintroduced and passed.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, who led negotiations on the policy, said earlier this year that Republicans chose not to support the policy to give Trump a political advantage on the border issue.
“When President Trump said, ‘Don’t fix anything during the presidential campaign,’ there was a lot of uproar in presidential politics in general, and several of my colleagues started looking for ways to withdraw from the bill,” Lankford said. he said. FOX News in April.
Still, Lankford stressed the need to prioritize practical solutions to the border issue.
“He’s got an office he’s running for. He’s got a campaign he’s running,” Lankford said of Trump. “I’m already in office. I have a responsibility to continue this.”
