Trump thanks border patrol agents’ union for its support

Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump thanked the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents roughly 16,500 U.S. Border Patrol agents, for its endorsement.

Trump’s thank you came on Memorial Day, but the union made the endorsement in March.

“The endorsement of me by the 16,500 Border Patrol Agents was the first time that they ever endorsed a presidential candidate,” Trump tweeted. The NBPC has had a longstanding practice of not endorsing presidential candidates in the primaries.

In early April, the Local 1929 Border Patrol Union voted to support Donald Trump for president despite a push from federal, state, and local leaders to reject the endorsement. The Border Patrol’s El Paso sector consists of about 1,700 agents.

“We are breaking with our past practice and giving our first-ever endorsement in a presidential primary. We think it is that important: if we do not secure our borders, American communities will continue to suffer at the hands of gangs, cartels and violent criminals preying on the innocent,” the NBPC stated on its website in March. “The lives and security of the American people are at stake, and the National Border Patrol Council will not sit on the sidelines.”

Monday, Trump said the union’s endorsement is proof the U.S. needs to build a wall along the border with Mexico. “The statement was made that the WALL was very necessary,” Trump tweeted.

When it endorsed Trump in March, the NBPC said our country needs a president who is not afraid of the media and who doesn’t embrace political correctness. “We need a person in the White House who won’t bow to foreign dictators, who is pro-military and values law enforcement, and who is angry for America and NOT subservient to the interests of other nations. Donald Trump is such a man,” the NBPC stated.

In an article published by the Los Angeles Times, critics of the Trump endorsement argued it could raise questions about whether the actions of Border Patrol agents are motivated by a personal dislike of migrants rather than their professional duty.

Don McDermott, a former supervisor of an anti-smuggling unit in San Diego, told the Los Angeles Times, “It is probable the endorsement of Mr. Trump would expose both the union and the individual members to accusations of xenophobia and even racism.”

The NBPC, which believes there is no greater threat to Americans today than “our open border,” hopes Trump will “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.”