President Trump received a glowing performance review Monday from the head of the National Border Patrol Council.
Brandon Judd appeared on “Fox and Friends” on Monday to discuss illegal immigration, Mr. Trump’s plan to build a border wall with Mexico, and morale within the agency. The union president said that agents have a new “energy” to them due to a concrete commitment to enforcing existing federal laws.
“There’s a vibe, there’s an energy in the Border Patrol that’s never been there before,” Mr. Judd told host Steve Doocy. “In the 20 years I’ve been in the patrol, we haven’t seen this type of energy, and we’re excited because we signed up to do a job and this president is allowing us to do that job.
Mr. Judd said that having a giant contiguous wall along the southern border was not as important as having barricades at “strategic locations” such as El Paso and San Diego.
“The president has done a great job of actually enforcing the law — something we didn’t see in the last eight years,” Mr. Judd said, Fox News Channel reported. “And if we continue to do that, then a clear message will be sent throughout the world that if you cross our borders illegally, you will be detained and you will be sent back.
“If you look at the rhetoric that the president sent out, we’ve had a drop that we’ve never seen before with any president,” he continued. “If you’re in the left, right or middle, you have to say this president has done exactly what he promised to do and we do have border security like what we expect to see.”
Mr. Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget request includes 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, roughly 500 new border agents and $2.6 billion for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security plans on giving the White House up to eight different wall prototypes to choose from by the end of the summer.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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