US Border Patrol Union Endorses Trump For President

By Lorne Matalon
March 30, 2016
www.bpunion.org
The National Border Patrol Council represents about 18,000 Border Patrol Agents and support personnel assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol, according to its website.

For the first time in its history, the national union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents has endorsed a presidential candidate during primary season.

On Wednesday, the National Border Patrol Council endorsed Donald Trump through a post on its website.

Union spokesperson Shawn Moran said, "We think this is an unprecedented time and we wanted to take a step that was going to have an impact."

Moran says no other candidate has highlighted the border the way Trump has.

"We need a president who is going to take border security seriously and re-establish border security and immigration enforcement ninths country," Moran said.

Those comments are in stark contrast to recent remarks made by Gil Kerlikowske, head of Customs & Border Protection. He recently told KPBS in San Diego that he rejects Trump's call for more border walls.

"An attempt to build a wall would be very,very difficult, incredibly expensive. We have 600 miles of fencing. It is very expensive to maintain that fencing," he said.

The union, in turn, rejects Kerlikowske's comments.