Prescott Valley, Arizona CNN —
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday announced new plans to increase the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents and retain existing personnel as he made immigration and border issues a key part of his final message to Vice President Kamala Harris. did.
At a campaign rally in the battleground state of Arizona, the former president, who spent much of his speech stoking fears about illegal immigration, announced that he would hire 10,000 new U.S. workers, give them a 10% pay raise and give them $10,000 in permanent pay. and signed a pledged goal to provide. bonus.
“This will ensure that we can hire and retain the Border Patrol agents that we need to retain, and we can also bring in a lot of new stuff, really great stuff,” he said. he told supporters packed into the Findlay Toyota Center. In another recent example of his dehumanizing rhetoric about illegal immigrants, he said Border Patrol agents have “good genes” after saying that murderous immigrants have “bad genes.” ” suggested that he had it.
The former president said he would ask Congress to “immediately” approve a 10% raise for all employees.
But earlier this year, President Trump defeated a bipartisan border bill in Congress that paved the way for more Border Patrol agents and had support from the National Border Patrol Council. The Harris campaign and Democrats have frequently cited President Trump’s efforts to tear up the deal while continuing to attack the former president on border security. The union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents formally endorsed Trump on Sunday after previously expressing support for him.
Harris’ campaign criticized President Trump on Sunday, citing his “long track record of failed leadership and broken promises.”
“Donald Trump told us Mexico would pay for a failed border wall. That was a lie. And he made taxpayers pay for a failed border wall. She’s not interested in solving problems, she just wants to work on one thing,” Harris campaign spokesman Matt Corridoni said in a statement. “That’s why he killed the bipartisan border bill that was supposed to secure the border, even though it had been approved by the Border Patrol.”
In late September, Harris made her first trip to the U.S. border as a presidential candidate, and again at a Univision town hall last week, she accused Trump of undermining a bipartisan border security bill and said Trump “wants to pursue the issue.” he claimed.
As CNN reported, President Trump is running as if closing the border and expelling people who cross it illegally is the country’s most pressing priority. But recent polls have repeatedly confirmed that the economy is the top concern for most voters. In a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS, more than four in 10 likely voters said the economy was the most important issue when choosing a candidate to lead the country. Only 12% said immigration was the most expensive option for them.
CNN’s Ebony Davis and Steve Contorno contributed to this report.
